Farnborough boss: Injury worries were behind Portsmouth first-team pulling out of friendly
The Blues’ Academy were in action at Farnborough last night, while the first-team are today heading to Germany
Injury concerns were behind Pompey’s surprise decision to pull the first-team out of their latest friendly, according to Farnborough’s Spencer Day.
And the sympathetic boss of the National League South side is adamant he ‘fully understands’ John Mousinho’s stance.
Although earmarked as a first-team fixture, it was actually an Academy side which took to the field at Cherrywood Road on Tuesday night.
Overseen by lead professional development phase coach Piero Mingoia, the Pompey kids produced an impressive display to draw 1-1 in a match they had enough chances to win.
Not a single member of Mousinho’s squad were involved, although first-year pros Michael Ani, Nathaniel Chioma and Chinedu Agu all started against Farnborough, with a 1,178 crowd in attendance.
And Marlon Pack, Josef Bursik, Connor Ogilvie, Josh Murphy, Keshi Anderson, Jacob Farrell, Franco Umeh, Mark Kosznovszky and Tayo Singerr currently out of action, Day empathised with Pompey’s decision.
‘They’ve had a difficult pre-season’
He told The News: ‘Portsmouth is a wonderful football club who we have a great relationship with - and they have to do what is right for them.
‘They’ve had a difficult pre-season - I don’t think they will mind me saying - with injuries and everything else and we fully understand. We understand they’ve got to do what’s right for them.
‘They just had to do the right thing for them with all the injuries - and I’ve had to do it myself once or twice in my career. We are so grateful to have Portsmouth Football Club here with their fans and support, financially it is an absolute life saver to us.
‘The reality is they need to do what’s right for them. Of course people are disappointed, but, at the end of the day, like us they want to make sure they win on August 8. If their manager has rightly decided that is what’s best for him, then I’m not going to complain for one second.
‘All we can do is get on with it and be grateful - and we are. There’s never any criticism, it is what it is, if we can both win on August 8 it will have been the right decision.
‘So it’s one of those things, you are seeing some very good teams pulling out of games at the moment for different reasons, we’ve all got to make decisions, including me. We wish everyone at Pompey a fantastic season.’
Pompey heading to Germany on Thursday morning
Pompey are flying to Frankfurt this morning ahead of Saturday’s final pre-season friendly against SV Darmstadt.
That schedule - and plans to train before the fixture - also contributed to Mousinho’s decision to rest his first-team from Farnborough.
Still, in their absence, Kyran Sylvanus handed the Blues a 21st-minute lead in a first half they should have held a far more emphatic scoreline.
However, Farnborough levelled in the 65th minute from a thumping header from Mason Bloomfield as it finished 1-1.
‘I thought they were wonderful’
Day added: ‘I thought they gave us a much better footballing test than I was expecting.
‘Obviously if you were playing Pompey’s full first-team, let’s be blunt we would have been defending for 98 per cent of the game - and that's what we planned for.
‘I was worried it was going to be a very, very good Academy first-year pro side which would play a very different style of football to what we are used to and, with only 10 days before the season started, that was a concern.
‘I have to say, though, I thought they were wonderful. They were physical, there were challenges going in there, they were kicking it long and, from a footballing perspective, it was a much-better test than potentially sitting in a low block for 95 minutes, waiting for very, very good Championship players to score.’