Why Portsmouth's seven-month-old 'new signing' is relishing finally proving worth to Fratton faithful

It was February when Tom McIntyre broke his left ankle just 54 minutes into his Blues debut - and he hasn’t played competitively since.

That was until Sunday when, following seven-and-a-half months on the sidelines, he returned to start for John Mousinho’s men against West Brom.

Having been back in training for a fortnight following a hamstring tear in pre-season, he put in an encouraging display in the centre of defence in the 3-0 loss to the Championship leaders.

Now he’s looking forward to more regular action and at last demonstrating the talents which persuaded the Blues to buy him from Reading in January. 

McInnes told The News: ‘It was terribly frustrating for me. I had been out for such a long time that when you come back you often pick up those little muscle injuries.

‘I’m trying to put that behind me and do everything I can to really show Pompey fans what I can do.

‘West Brom felt like a second debut. You’ve got those feelings again which I had on my Pompey debut, which was brilliant because you don’t ever want to lose that. It was special to be out there again. 

‘You get the butterflies in your stomach, you’re a little nervous, you are excited, eager to show people how good you are and what you can do.

‘I feel I owe people a good run. The club have put faith in me, all the fans have been great and really supportive, and I want to pay that back.

‘I thought I did okay. Obviously I’m critical of myself with different stuff, so there were a few things I could have done better, but with game time and dusting off those cobwebs, I can get back to my best football.

‘I suppose it’s like a new signing because I haven’t been able to show what I can do, so fingers crossed I can get a good run.’

McIntyre returned to action in the summer only to suffer a hamstring tear in the pre-season behind-closed-doors clash with Wycombe.

Now he’s over that latest blow and featured for 76 minutes before being replaced by Regan Poole in the 3-0 loss to the Baggies.

McIntyre added: ‘It was a grade 2 hamstring tear, it wasn’t massive, but a little niggly one.

‘It was one of those where I could do most things, but that high-end sprinting was a little tough, which is good in a sense because I was able to continue running and staying as fit as I could without sprinting.

‘I did it on the Saturday against Wycombe and was back running again on the Monday/Tuesday, but just not high-end speed.’