Former Portsmouth Academy defender Saidy rejoins US Portsmouth

The former Pompey Academy skipper played 16 league and cup games for the Wessex League Premier Division club last season.

He has now returned to the Victory Stadium after making 14 starts and three sub appearances for city rivals Baffins Milton Rovers in 2022/23.

Saidy will go straight into the squad for this weekend’s home game with fellow bottom seven club Bournemouth Poppies.

He could have a chance of starting as Alex Andrews - who played centre half in Tuesday’s Wessex derby loss at Baffins - is unavailable.

USP led 1-0 at Baffins with four minutes of normal time remaining, only to lose 2-1.

It wasn’t the first time in recent weeks they had conceded late goals - it was a similar story in losses at Bemerton and at home to Shaftesbury.

‘Absolutely gutted,’ stated USP boss Fraser Quirke after a result that left his side five points above second-bottom Pagham having played five games more.

‘It was a tough one to take after all the effort the players had put in.

‘The real positive was our first 85 minutes performance. Hopefully we can carry on like that and just add an extra five minutes and deliver a complete performance.’

Having conceded 19 goals in their previous five league games, USP certainly tightened up at the back at the PMC Stadium.

Quirke made a slight defensive tweak, swapping Ash Thompson and Andrews who had lined up at centre half and full back respectively in last weekend’s 5-3 home loss to Bemerton.

He will now need to make at least one more defensive switch when Poppies arrive this weekend.

Bournemouth are also in relegation danger after a dire run of just three points from their last 16 Premier fixtures.

Poppies last picked up a point on November 11 and they last tasted victory on September 20 when they beat Blackfield, at the time their fourth straight league success.

USP are looking to complete a double, having won 4-2 in Dorset.