'Unrealistic': Rich Hughes' honest Portsmouth transfer admission about Colby Bishop

And he believes other clubs would have also struggled to succeed when challenged with such a huge task.

The loss of Bishop for an indeterminable period of time following the diagnosis of a heart issue threw John Mousinho’s attacking plans into disarray.

In an attempt to bolster their weakened striker options, Hughes and his recruitment team identified Elias Sorensen from Danish club Esbjerg and secured Mark O’Mahony from Brighton on a season-long loan.

Yet, coupled with Kusini Yengi’s injury problems, Pompey had struggled badly for goals - until Bishop’s dramatic return in the 3-1 success over Preston.

Hughes told The News: ‘It would be unrealistic for a lot of teams in the bottom half of the Championship to replace a player like Colby Bishop.

‘It’s not just the goals, which is a huge part of his game. Everyone throws down that gold standard in a centre-forward as being a 20-goal-a-season man, which Colby has hit twice in the last two years.

‘Yet it’s also his other work on the pitch which is really impressive, helping set the tone for the team and lead the line.

‘It was a huge loss and the level of finance required to replace players like that is really tough for anyone.

‘The wider point is even with finances ad infinitum, how do you replace what Colby Bishop can do? There’s normally a reason why centre-forwards are at a huge premium.

‘There’s a lack of really talented centre-forwards who work hard, lead the line for the team, and are able to score 20 goals. They are the players which are the biggest premium in the transfer market.

‘We had planned for all scenarios and all different outcomes, but a heart issue was never something we could have anticipated, it was a blow. Colby was a player we were looking forward to having as part of the group, being a starting number 9, then it’s taken away from you through no fault of anyone’s. It’s not bad planning, it wasn’t a normal injury.

‘We subsequently recruited to bring in and strengthen the group - we were never going to be able to bring in a player to replace Colby Bishop. Certainly with the uncertainty of knowing when he’d be back and what that looked like, it was very difficult.

‘You are never going to find someone who is a like-for-like replacement.’

Sorensen has scored once in eight appearances, while has been left out of the Blues’ last two 20-man squad.

O’Mahony has two goals in eight outings, although on Sunday netted for the Republic of Ireland under-21s in a 3-2 success over Sweden in a friendly.

He added: ‘We brought Elias Sorensen in, he has started some games and done well in moments.

‘However, he needs to nail down that consistency which I am sure Eli would understand completely. He also has the need to adapt, having moved countries with a young family.

‘Mark O’Mahony is someone I think is going to go on and achieve a lot of success, but he is a young player finding his way in the game and we are hopeful they will start to nail that consistency.

‘But Mark has also shown an instinct by scoring a couple of goals, so he has bits to build on,’