Stage set for Portsmouth reunion with League One title winner and ex-Priory School pupil
The Bristol Rovers trio will come up against the Blues on July 18
An ex-Priory School pupil, a Blues title winner and a former £350,000 Fratton Park signing are lined-up for a Pompey reunion after the latest summer friendly was unveiled.
League Two side Bristol Rovers have filled the vacant slot for Saturday, July 18, with Pompey pre-season programme now finalised.
The fixture will see John Mousinho’s troops lock horns with a Steve Evans side likely to contain three familiar faces, having also previously seen service with the Blues.
Certainly Jack Sparkes and Ellis Harrison have differing south-coast experiences, with one crowned a League One champion and the other losing in a play-off semi-final to Oxford United.
As for Tommy Leigh, the attacker was released by Pompey’s Academy at the age of 16, yet has still forged a good Football League career with Accrington, MK Dons, Bradford and now Rovers.
Pompey’s third summer friendly
The Memorial Stadium match will represent the Blues’ third friendly of the summer, with Woking (July 14) and Aldershot (July 15) preceding it.
Certainly the game offers a step up in quality from the non-leaguers for Mousinho’s men, with Rovers finishing last season strongly with 11 wins and a draw from their final 12 games.
That remarkable run ensured they finished 14th in League Two, having been embroiled in a relegation battle when Evans arrived in December 2025.
Sparkes was a key part of that resurgence, totalling 47 appearances and two goals after joining on a free transfer from Peterborough last summer.
The left-back is, of course, fondly remembered by the Fratton faithful for his contribution to the 2023-24 title win under Mousinho.
With 43 appearances, including 22 league starts, his attacking forays down the left flank and excellent delivery from dead-ball situations made a telling impact in a campaign which saw the Blues claim the title with two matches to spare.
He was subsequently sold to Peterborough in July 2024 for an undisclosed fee after not being given the chance to feature in the Championship.
It was a Fratton Park exit hastened by the signing of Australian Jacob Farrell to provide competition for first-choice left-back Connor Ogilvie.
Summer 2019 spending spree by Pompey
Meanwhile, Harrison signed a new 12-month deal with Rovers last month after a flying end to the season saw him net eight goals in the last eight matches, including a hat-trick against Cheltenham.
Having returned to his boyhood club last summer following a seven-year absence, the 32-year-old totalled 14 goals - taking his club career tally to 63.
Harrison had been Kenny Jackett’s second Pompey signing in the summer of 2019, splashing out £350,000 to land the Ipswich striker.
With the Blues bidding to bounce back from the agony of the previous season’s League One play-off semi-final defeat to Sunderland, Jackett had the proceeds from the sales of Jamal Lowe and Matt Clarke to spend that summer.
Pompey’s boss also spent heavily on Marcus Harness and John Marquis, yet the campaign ended prematurely through Covid, before suffering another play-off semi-final defeat, this time to Oxford.
Harrison left for Fleetwood in January 2022, having scored 20 times in 84 appearances for the Blues, including an EFL Trophy hat-trick at AFC Wimbledon in September 2021.
Former Baffins and Bognor attacker
Finally, ex-Priory School pupil Leigh featured for Baffins and Bognor after failing to win a scholarship at Fratton Park, before Accrington took him into the Football League in July 2021.
He spent the second half of last season on loan at Rovers from Bradford, registering four goals in 14 matches. Last week, Evans secured him on loan once again, this time for the full duration of the 2026-27 campaign.
And the trio will have the opportunity to face former club Pompey in friendly action next month as the summer builds towards kick-off.