Pick of the stats: Hull City v Portsmouth
- Published
Saturday lunchtime brings a big game at both ends of the Championship table as Hull City wlll seek to get their play-off push back on track against lowly Portsmouth (12:30 GMT).
The Tigers went down 2-1 at Derby on Tuesday night to end a six-match unbeaten run from which they claimed 14 points and slipped to 8th, albeit only a point outside the play-off places.
Pompey have gone three games without a goal but did end a run of three straight defeats with an entertaining goalless draw against Wrexham on Wednesday but still slipped to 20th, five points but only two places above the relegation zone.
The Blues have won just once in their past 10 matches, scoring six goals and earning seven points.
Hull are unbeaten in their past three league meetings with Portsmouth (W1 D2), with their two last season both ending 1-1 – the Tigers haven't gone four without loss against Pompey since 1980 (5 in a row).
Portsmouth have only lost on one of their past 11 league visits to Hull City (W5 D5), losing 1-0 in September 2011 under Steve Cotterill.
Hull City have won four of their seven home league games this season (D2 L1) and could already match their win tally from the whole of last season at the MKM stadium (W5 D8 L10).
Portsmouth have failed to score in each of their past three Championship matches (D1 L2), and could go four in a row without scoring in the second tier for the first time since December 1999 (a run of five).
Joe Gelhardt has scored eight goals in 15 league starts at home in the Championship for Hull City, and only Norwich City's Josh Sargent (10) has netted more home goals in 2025 than the Leeds United loanee. 11 of his 17 league goals during his career have come in Yorkshire (9 in Hull, 1 in Leeds, 1 in Rotherham).