'Outstanding': Portsmouth boss' pride after kids answer SOS to shine in first-team friendly

Piero Mingoia saluted his ‘outstanding’ Pompey kids after stepping in at Farnborough to do the club proud.

With John Mousinho’s men scheduled to fly to Germany on Thursday morning, the Academy were asked to fulfil what was meant to be a first-team fixture against the National League South side.

What unfolded was a 1-1 draw as the youthful Blues put in an excellent performance - and may even feel frustrated they didn’t run out comfortable winners.

Certainly those Pompey fans present in the 1,178 crowd would have appreciated the efforts of their impressive under-18s.

And their lead professional development phase coach admitted he was proud of the youngsters.

Mingoia told The News: ‘I’m extremely proud of the way they went about the game.

‘As soon as we were told we were going to take part in the fixture, we tried to take it as a challenge, an opportunity for us to showcase ourselves and also test ourselves against some of the Farnborough players I know have been around for a while in League One and Two.

‘It was a chance to see where we were at - and the boys really stepped up to the plate in terms of quality, attitude and endeavour.

‘We were told that the plans have changed and we are here to support the first-team. We try to spin everything into a positive, into an opportunity for us to test our development and test the boys - and they rose to the challenge.

‘We just tried to focus on us. We had a meeting on Tuesday and yes it’s a big challenge. We’ve played players from higher leagues in the past, but how can we control what we can control.

‘We perhaps saw it on Saturday at Baffins when nobody was there or Chelsea two weeks ago or Bournemouth, to try to be ourselves.

‘And it came out tonight with maybe a bit more, with the crowd and the occasion, some of the boys liked it even more. I’m extremely proud.

‘We were outstanding tonight, the challenge is can we do that on Saturday, can we do that next Tuesday, because obviously the hardest thing for young players is consistency.’

Kyran Sylvanus opened the scoring for the Blues in the 21st minute, although they should have gone in at the break well ahead, missing a string of other opportunities.

Farnborough levelled in the 65th minute from a thumping header from Mason Bloomfield, while Ethan Bell’s excellent late save ensured Pompey claimed a 1-1 draw.

Mingoia added: ‘When we were trying to see the game through, I could hear the boys saying we should be X amount up, but it’s one of those.

‘It says everything that the boys are disappointed they didn’t win the game.’

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