From £1.5m target to regular Portsmouth tormentor - MK Dons man and ex-Bristol City and Peterborough striker is one who got away

And Mo Eisa will be bidding to add to his impressive goal record against the Blues when they visit MK Dons on Good Friday.

The 28-year-old is the League One strugglers’ leading scorer this season, with nine to his name in all competitions.

He also possesses a healthy return in encounters with Pompey, having netted three times in six appearances, including this season’s FA Cup.

Ironically, the Blues were in the hunt to sign him for £1.5m in the summer of 2018, competing with Sunderland, Brentford, Leeds and others for the highly-coveted striker.

Eisa had rattled in a club-record 25 goals in his first Cheltenham season after making the step into League Two from non-leaguers Greenwich Borough.

That alerted Kenny Jackett ahead of his second Pompey campaign, who already had his own prolific striker in Brett Pitman, fresh from netting 25 goals himself.

Having that summer already recruited Ronan Curtis, Louis Dennis, Craig MacGillivray, Tom Naylor, Lee Brown and Anton Walkes, now he eyed a new striker.

However, Cheltenham boss Gary Johnson instead oversaw Eisa’s sale to Championship Bristol City – managed by his son, Lee.

As a consequence, Jackett elected not to spend the £1.5m earmarked for Eisa’s capture, going with either Pitman or Oli Hawkins as his central striker during the first half of the 2018-19 season.

That selection initially served him well too, leading League One for three-and-a-half months before finishing fourth and losing to Sunderland in the play-offs.

As for Eisa, after just six appearances, with no Championship starts, he was sold to Peterborough for a club record fee just 12 months later.

He subsequently scored in a 2-2 draw at Fratton Park in December 2019, during a two-year spell which saw him net 21 goals in 71 appearances.

After being made available for transfer in the summer of 2021, Eisa next moved to MK Dons, again for a reported club-record fee.

To date, Eisa has totalled 23 goals in 71 matches for the Dons, including scoring against Pompey in MK Dons’ 2-1 win in January 2021.

He also netted in their FA Cup defeat this season, when the Blues ran out 3-2 winners in the November second-round fixture.

Boss Mark Jackson has overseen a welcome resurgence in form of late, with 10 points from a possible 12 lifting them out of the relegation zone.

That includes Eisa grabbing a first-half winner at Cambridge United last month, at the time securing their first triumph in seven games.

Now he’ll be striving to maintain his goal touch against Pompey as the 19th-placed Dons continue putting distance between the League One relegation zone.