The Cherries will face League 2 Portsmouth in Round Four of the FA Cup after the League Two club overcame Championship club Ipswich Town in the 3rd round replay on Tuesday night.

Tie details

After progressing past Birmingham City in the Third Round, Eddie Howe's side are set to look forward to a tie on Saturday 30th January at 3pm at Fratton Park in what is set to be an absolute cracker and is quite surprising that the game hasn't been selected for TV coverage given the nature of the game.

Previous meetings

The pair last met in League Cup in August 2013 where Bournemouth came out on top 1-0. As for the last five fixtures between the two, it's been very even with both sides claiming victories twice each (and drawing once). Portsmouth however have the better recent club pedigree with them easing past their South Coast neighbours with a win in the Johnson's Paint Trophy September 2012.

Nevertheless, the pair have only previously met once in the FA Cup and this came all the way back in 1991. On the night, Guy Whittingham scored four of the five goals to give Pompey an easy victory.

As it stands, there are currently 57 places between the two on the league pyramid so it would be some shock were the home side to pick up the victory. On the other hand, they are more than capable of doing so having knocked out Championship club Ipswich in the last round.

How they will approach the game

Bournemouth still aren't assured of their place in the Premier League next season so you would expect them to make a number of changes for the tie to give minutes to the squad players whilst also handing a rest to a number of the important first team players.

As for Pompey they will see this as a chance to keep their momentum going as they currently sit 5th in League Two and have got a great chance of progressing through to the Fifth Round.

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Tom  Mason
Im 18 years old and a studying media. Write for the Southampton, Cricket and Tennis sections. Am an sports writer and have been writing for Vavel since August 2015 Twitter: @tom_mason18