Ben Chorley praise augers well for Portsmouth forward

I bumped into our former defender Ben Chorley at a reserve friendly against Swindon in August, the club where he is employed as chief scout.

Ben was a team-mate of Louis at Bromley until this summer, when both moved on in different directions.

He regards the attacking midfielder very highly and thinks he has something, it's just a case of earning your first-team opportunities.

So tomorrow night's Checkatrade Trophy will be about the likes of Louis and others competing for a place, having the opportunity of putting your face in.

Dion Donohue is another who can benefit, it has been a very frustrating time for him so hopefully he can get some minutes following illness and injury.

He's a lovely lad so good luck to him. Having missed most of pre-season, he is always playing catch up.

Kenny Jackett takes his team to the Broadfield Stadium, where Crawley have won five-successive matches, but Pompey are playing better away from home.

Saturday's defeat to Gillingham signalled two points from a possible nine at Fratton Park in recent matches, but that's modern-day football.

Visiting teams are a lot harder to break down, they made it difficult, whereas when the Blues are away they can be more expansive with the opposition coming on.

I didn't think we played particularly badly against the Gills, sometimes results like that happen '“ it's how you react which is most important.

We were a bit one-paced in the first half and got caught out with two good finishes, albeit defensively it wasn't great in either build-up.

Firstly, the ball was allowed to be put into the penalty area and then headed on before it became a great finish by Tom Eaves, who won't score a goal like that again in his life.

The second was a killer on the stroke of half time, a poor delivery from a corner which travelled right across goal and should have been deal with. But again a great finish.

The second half was better from Pompey but we ran out of luck, unfortunately you get those games.

After 11 league matches unbeaten from the start of the season, the run was always going to come to an end sometime, but it's making sure the reaction is good and picking up winning ways immediately.

Responding correctly is the big thing. Defeats happen, you have bad days, any team with aspirations of promotion will have those matches, they will happen.

Now let's see the Blues react.