Danny Cowley makes admission on Northampton loanee Bryn Morris' Portsmouth future

The midfielder joined Northampton on loan for the remainder of the season in January after falling out of favour under previous manager Kenny Jackett.

With Morris’ two-and-a-half year deal expiring this summer, it had appeared his time at Fratton Park was effectively over.

However, Jackett was replaced by Cowley last month and the new boss pledged to give all of the fringe men fresh starts.

Morris has played 16 times for Northampton, starting the past five games, in their bid to avoid League One relegation.

Cowley’s kept tabs on the 24-year-old throughout his career, tracking his progress at Middlesbrough and during a loan spell at Wycombe.

And the ex-Lincoln chief will complete his due diligence on Morris’ Sixfields spell before recommending whether Pompey should hand Morris new terms or release him.

Cowley said: ‘Bryn is a boy we know back when he was at Middlesbrough under-23s and was on loan at Wycombe.

‘He has a nice range of passing and is a competitive number-six who can also play in the number-eight role.

‘For us, it is always to be open-minded, always to be open-minded.

‘Again, we will have some decisions to make and the football club will have some decisions to make moving forward.

‘Certainly, I won't make any decisions without having all of the information in front of us.

‘We have quite a good procedure with our loan players. We have a statistical program that we use that analyses our own performance every week.

‘It gives us a really good understanding because we think that's so important.

‘We also use that programme to follow the younger players. We watch their clips and games and use the statistical progra to get a really good detailed understanding of their performance in the game.

‘We are not governed by the stats but like them to inform our opinion and helps us with our decisions.’

Pompey also have Reeco Hackett-Fairchild on loan at League Two Southend.