Barnsley loanee Lloyd Isgrove bids farewell to Portsmouth

Lloyd Isgrove watches from the bench at Shrewsbury in March - his last involvement in a Pompey first-team squad. Picture: Joe Pepler

The winger today bid farewell to Blues team-mates following his final training session.

Isgrove’s loan spell from Barnsley is scheduled to end after Saturday’s visit of Accrington.

That stay can be extended to cover the forthcoming play-off campaign, however such an option is highly unlikely to be activated.

With Isgrove not in the frame for the Accrington clash, he departs Fratton Park having failed to play a single minute of first-team football.

The January transfer window recruit also featured in just three squads, as an unused substitute on each occasion.

Pompey’s assistant manager, Joe Gallen, feels for the 26-year-old, whose pathway into the first-team was blocked by Jamal Lowe.

Gallen: ‘It hasn’t happened here for Lloyd at all.

‘Overall we took quite a lot of players in January right at the death and tried to read the situation. We are disappointed for Lloyd because he probably hasn’t had a chance.

‘He has trained and we have been able to assess him in training, but he hasn’t actually got onto the pitch and played for Pompey, which would have been his aim.

‘From that point of view, we are disappointed about that.

‘He will be very frustrated but, on the right-hand side, Lloyd was competing against Jamal. Before him were Dave Wheeler and Andre Green – and neither really played too much either.

‘A lot of players maybe wouldn’t have acted as professionally as Lloyd did.

‘He’s a very, very good person and a very good professional. He trained very well every single day, even though as a loan player he didn’t quite get the opportunity.

‘Jamal’s had a great season and it has been difficult to dislodge him, difficult to take him off at times, difficult to say “No, you are going to be sub”. He’s top scorer and has plenty of assists.

‘On the other side of the field, Ronan (Curtis) has had a great season as well.

‘It has been hard to give Lloyd an opportunity due to the form of our wide players.’

Isgrove, who is out of contract at Barnsley next month, had been hoping to put himself in the shop window at Fratton Park.

As it is, he joins the likes of Dominic Hyam and Aaron Simpson as loanees from recent times who never made an appearance.