Pompey add Poole to pre-season schedule

The Blues will travel to the Black Gold Stadium on Tuesday evening (July 11) for their third summer friendly.

The fixture was originally pencilled in as an Academy match – however, this has now been upgraded to a Pompey XI game.

A mixture of youngsters and first-team squad members will turn out as Kenny Jackett seeks to spread match minutes across his players.

Last weekend the Blues kicked off their pre-season programme with a 3-0 victory at Salisbury, utilising 22 players.

For Saturday’s trip to the Hawks (3pm), the Pompey boss is seeking to reduce his squad numbers in an attempt to increase each players’ match involvement.

The likelihood is they will operate with a strong squad at Westleigh Park for what is expected to attract another bumper gate for their neighbours.

Those not featuring now have the opportunity for a run out at Poole little more than 72 hours later.

With a current squad of 25, Jackett is aware of the necessity to juggle his players to ensure they are involved in pre-season games.

The fixture at Poole will kick off at 7.30pm.

Tickets are priced at £8 for adults, £5 for concessions and £3 for under-18s, while under-13s accompanied by adults will be given free admittance.

The Blues visited non-league Poole in August 1988 as part of their pre-season under Alan Ball.

Mick Quinn grabbed the only goal of the game ahead of their 1988-89 Division Two campaign following top-flight relegation.

The Blues played only two friendlies that summer – the other being a 2-0 victory at the Rocks.