Portsmouth away trip announced as fifth pre-season opponents named

Pompey have announced details of a fifth game that will form part of their preparations for their 2025-26 Championship campaign.

With friendly fixtures against League Two Crawley Town and non-league sides Woking, Farnborough and Havant & Waterlooville already confirmed, it’s now been revealed that a game at League One Reading has also been added to their busy summer schedule.

The fixture at the Select Car Leasing Stadium has been pencilled in for Saturday, July 26, with the game kicking off at 3pm.

It will be the first time Pompey have travelled to Reading since October 2023, when a Terry Devlin effort on 58 minutes handed John Mousinho’s side a come-from-behind League One win that also saw Tino Anjorin and Colby Bishop on the mark for the visitors.

Welcoming them to Reading will be former Blues favourite Noel Hunt, who featured 20 times for Pompey when they won the League Two title in 2016-17. The 42-year-old Irishman has been in charge of the Royals since December and guided them to a seventh-place finish in last season’s third tier.

The game could also provide a homecoming for Tom McIntyre, whom the Blues brought to the club from Reading in January 2024. Although, there are doubts whether he could still be at Fratton Park come the end of July, with Pompey open to offers for the centre-back.

What Pompey’s pre-season schedule looks like

Pompey return for pre-season training on Monday, June 23, before they jet off to Bratislava, Slovakia, for a week-long training camp in early July.

Once again, no game has been scheduled for their latest summer trip away, with head coach John Mousinho keen to maximise the players’ time on the training pitch. However, an open training session will be held on Thursday, July 10, for any fans wanting to travel to Slovakia.

The Blues’ first game of pre-season will be a trip to National League side Woking on Tuesday, July 15 (7pm), with that run-out quickly followed by a game at Farnborough 24 hours later on Wednesday, July 16.

Pompey travel to Crawley on Saturday, July 19, for their next test, with their visit to the Select Car Stadium on July 26 sandwiched between that game and their annual trip to the Hawks’ Westeligh Park on Tuesday, July 29.

Meanwhile, another fixture is pencilled in for Saturday, August 2 - the week before Pompey begin their latest Championship season on the weekend of August 9/10.

Pompey’s 2025 pre-season at a glance

No fixtures against traditional pre-season opponents Bognor Regis Town or Gosport Borough have been pencilled in this summer due to their ongoing plans to install artificial pitches at Nyewood Lane and Privett Park respectively.

Former Pompey chairman Iain McInness - now the owner of Borough - told The News: ‘I am 74 years old now, so I’m knocking on a bit, and the only way we can sustain football at this level is to go for a 4G pitch.

‘For it to last and be sustainable, it needs an income other than Iain’s chequebook and that’s the reason why we are doing it. I think it will be really good for the community, ourselves and the council.’

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