Danny Cowley makes Portsmouth team selection admission following Cheltenham win - and gives honest assessment of current squad amid early-season promotion hopes

The Blues boss admitted the quality he now has in his squad is making team selections harder.

But he admitted the Blues won’t be getting carried away with themselves after Saturday’s 2-0 win at Cheltenham, with the group still a work in progress.

Following a busy transfer window to date, with 11 players signed this summer, Cowley, arguably, named his strongest ever bench for the trip to Whaddon Road.

Not able to make the starting line-up, included among the substitutes were Ronan Curtis, Owen Dale, Tom Lowery, Joe Pigott, Zak Swanson, Josh Oluwayemi and Jay Mingi.

Captain Clark Robertson and Joe Morrell were absent through injury. Haji Mnoga was 19th man.

Meanwhile, there was no place in the group for Kieron Freeman and Ryan Tunnicliffe, for whom Pompey received bids for on Friday.

With five changes from the bench permitted this season, Cowley was able to call upon Curtis & Co to help close the game out at Cheltenham.

That helps give match minutes to more of those who miss out from the start.

But it doesn’t make Cowley’s job any easier – not that he’s complaining.

'It's probably the first time in my Pompey management career where I've had some difficult decisions to make,’ said the manager.

'But I'm all for it. It's great, it's what we need.

'This is Portsmouth Football Club - we need competition for places.

'Young Haji was excellent on Tuesday (at Cardiff) but was the 19th man on Saturday.

‘I think all the players we have in the group want to play - and I'd be really worried if they didn't.

'They all respect that the team comes first and they all know that whether they start the game or finish the game, that they're really valued by the whole group.

'And this is really important.’

When asked if he now had a group that can not only better last season’s 10th-placed finish but push for promotion, Cowley said: 'That is the challenge, absolutely.

'I think we're very early (as a group). We're four games in and we're four games unbeaten, with three of them being away.

'We've had three clean sheets and we're showing signs of improvement.

'I think we were better this Saturday than we were last Saturday.

'But we've still got a long way to go.

'We're still very much a work in progress, so we're not going to get carried away with ourselves.

'We'll go away, take some learning from the game, we'll recover well, which is crucial, because Saturday’s conditions were incredible.

'And then we'll go again on Tuesday at Fratton Park.’