Forgotten Portsmouth signing pencilled in for timely Blues comeback in Westleigh Park fixture

Pompey’s forgotten man is poised to make his timely return at a football club where he needs absolutely no introduction.

Reuben Swann has been sidelined by a hip flexor injury during pre-season, ruling him out of the Blues’ opening four friendlies.

Until he sustained the unfortunate issue during Pompey’s Slovakian training camp, John Mousinho had praised the 19-year-old’s attitude and work-rate since returning from a season-long loan at the Hawks.

Having resumed full training on Friday, Swann is pencilled in to mount his first-team comeback at Westleigh Park tonight (7pm).

And it will pit the midfielder against a Shaun North side he featured regularly for last term, helping them finish sixth in Southern Premier League South.

Portsmouth boss: We should see him in some capacity

Mousinho told The News: ‘Reuben trained on Friday and was nowhere near ready for Reading, but on Tuesday we should see him in some capacity.

‘We had a little play around with some numbers when we knew what minutes we were targeting against Reading, so a lot of the players you saw at the back end of the game will probably be starting against Havant.

‘Considering how well the lads finished as well that will be a good thing, but we have by no means decided on what the starting line-up is going to be for the first game of the season and I think Havant it’s a really good opportunity for players to get minutes.

‘It’s a game we wanted to insert into the schedule because of the minutes we’re going to need to get into the boys’ legs.

‘Reading was a very good game for us at this stage of the season. We have tried to upgrade the pre-season friendlies this year, this time last year we played a really good Wycombe side and lost, but it was at the training ground.

‘So going into a stadium on Saturday was important. First of all for the fans to get that different feel, so it became a lot more competitive, and that was really pleasing for us.’

No appearance for Luke Le Roux and Mark Kosznovszky

Ben Killip is expected to start in goal at Westleigh Park this evening, with Nicolas Schmid having been the only player to feature for 90 minutes at Reading.

Taking into account those players who appeared in the second half of Saturday’s 4-0 victory, the likes of Hayden Matthews, Jacob Farrell, Zak Swanson, Terry Devlin, John Swift, Paddy Lane and Thomas Waddingham could start against the non-leaguers.

Swann, Ibane Bowat and Harry Clout will also be involved, although it remains to be seen whether Nathan Ferguson’s trial will run into another week.

Although Mousinho has previously insisted new signings Luke Le Roux and Mark Kosznovszky will not feature until Saturday, when the Blues face PEC Zwolle.

Regardless, the Hawks will form the latest step of their pre-season schedule - and their fifth fixture.

‘The performance was there in large parts’

He added: ‘Reading was a really good run out. I speak about this every time after pre-season games, number one is from a fitness aspect, making sure we get through it without injury.

‘We’ve got minutes in the tank for the boys, which was really good, while the performance was there in large parts, which is the next part of what makes a good pre-season game. We managed to get the result too, which was also pleasing.

‘It was a good game, Reading pressed us high, we had to figure out at certain times how we were going to get out of that. It was different from some presses and similar to what we expected.

‘It was definitely something which posed us a lot of issues and a lot of problems, as they did for a good Spurs side which went there the previous game.’

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