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.
13. Wingers transfer picture
Mousinho said: ‘We feel we’re pretty well placed in terms of wingers now, so the focus will now lie elsewhere for the moment.' | Portsmouth FC
14. Loan arrivals
Mousinho said: ‘Loans will be ones we have to wait on. The main pool we will have to wait on with loans are with Premier League clubs, so we’ll have to wait.' | National World
15. Ryley Towler's future
Towler said: ‘At the moment it’s still early days in pre-season, so I don’t really know what is going to happen. I think we’ll see in the next couple of weeks how things will pan out a little bit more. I obviously want to be here - it’s Portsmouth in the Championship. I love it here. I love the appreciation. I used to be a fan, so to have them cheering me on and be able to give a bit back is appreciated. They deserve it.' | National World
16. The need for transfer patience
Mousinho said: ‘In general things have been quite slow and the top players are in no rush to make a decision. So we’ll be patient. We know it feels like the season’s close because we’re back in training. That’s fine and we have to get that balance right between urgency and patience - that’s the trick in recruitment. If we can, we want players in as quickly as possible. We spoke about 11 new players going away last year, but if you look on the flipside of that, you can look at players we’ve brought in late in the transfer window. Alex Robertson springs to mind and everyone knows how successful that loan was and how good he was for us. I think from a certain standpoint it’s important to get players in, but last season also showed players can come in late and impact things. In January, Callum Lang came in late and had a massive impact. I don’t think it’s a massive issue and we can adapt as best we can.’ | @pn_jordan_cross