That gave Neil Allen and Jordan Cross the brilliant opportunity to get a real sense of how John Mousinho’s team are shaping up ahead of the enormous challenge that awaits them in four weeks time.
It also presented them the golden chance to pick the brains of the head coach and sporting director Rich Hughes to see how Pompey’s ongoing recruirment drive is going. There’s still plenty of work to be done in that department, despite the arrivals of five players since the transfer window opened on June 14.
Speculation remains rife in regards to a number of issues. So what better way to address those subjects that to speak directly to the key men at the top to the chain? We’ve provided you with their responses all week via portsmouth.co.uk. But with so much discussed and situations remaining fluid, we thought it’s worth putting together a transfer state of play so you can remain as up to date as possible when it comes to Pompey’s current transfer window.
We hope this proves useful, with close to 20 transfer issues addressed.
5. '3-4 signings in the pipeline'
Richard Hughes said: ‘There are a couple of other bits we are working on. In terms of the time frame, it’s very difficult to say, but there are probably 3-4 deals that we feel are well in the pipeline and we’re trying to get done. Various positions. In a nice way, they are all long-standing targets we’ve had an interest in from the back end of last season. We will affect that as and when we can. I couldn't give you a time frame, but we will be looking to bring in players sooner rather than later. There are a lot of different elements in play to it, but we are pleased with the progress, there are consistent conversations. As much as being out here (Croatia) this week has been great with the team and the staff, a lot of my time has been spent on the phone and keeping things moving along, which is great. Everything is progressing quite nicely.’ | Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
6. Next phase of Pompey's recruitment drive
Mousinho said: 'The rest of the business we do now is probably going to be loans and fees.’ | National World
7. Potential departures
Mousinho said: ‘We’re happy with the squad as it is at the minute, so we’ll reassess that next week. We have the three non-league games which we’ll need a decent squad for, particularly with the turnaround on Friday and Saturday with the Havant and Waterlooville and Bognor games. So we have to have a squad to cope with that and I think we’ll have a look at where the squad is after that. We don’t want to be over-inflated and we do want players in the squad who are competitive. If there is the need to move out or they feel the need to move out, we’ll look at it at that point. At the moment though, we don’t have any thought on that.’ | National World
8. Matt Ritchie
Mousinho said: 'Look, Matt is a fantastic player and he has the Portsmouth background, but as we are at the moment there’s nothing in that one.’ | Getty Images