John Mousinho lauds his Pompey Pups as stars of tomorrow shine in latest warm-up win

The Blues boss fielded as starting XI with an average age of just 20 in the 1-0 win at West Leigh Park.

And that number would have come down considerably by the final whistle, as a further eight academy youngsters were thrown on along with with Josh Oluwayemi and Liam Vincent.

Those players handled the physical test provided by Hawks in impressive fashion, following on from involvement for many in Friday night’s success at Gosport.

Mousinho said: ‘It was really useful. It was different circumstances on a 4G pitch.

‘It was a completely different team to yesterday, but it was really useful to get 60 minutes into the pros.

‘Then for the youth team to come on and play for 30 minutes made it a really good exercise.

‘If you looked at the starting line-up we had, even with pros on the pitch it was a young side.

‘Toby in goal was 18 and I think the oldest was Ben Stevenson.

‘Beyond him, the team was 22 and under with Haji, Zak. Ryley, Jack Sparkes, Harry.

‘Then there was Harvey Laidlaw in the side and Destiny in the side.

‘Paddy was one of older ones, too, at 22.

‘So we’re really pleased with how the boys applied themselves and stood up to a physical challenge from a side who were quite direct, who are going to be very decent at this level.

‘So to do that and play some good football on a tricky pitch in tricky conditions was pleasing.’

Of the team who saw out the victory against Hawks, Mitch Aston, Kevin Bosaka, Jack Fox, Harvey Laidlaw, Brian Quarm, Sam Folarin and Koby Mottoh are just going into the second years of their scholarships.

Meanwhile, Harvey Clout and Jayden Keteku were only confirmed as first-year scholars earlier this month.

Yet none of the boys looked out of place performing in front of a crowd of 4,250.

Mousinho added: ‘Credit to the young lads.

‘I said in the changing room after they’ve been a credit to themselves over the past couple of days.

‘They came on at Gosport, completely changed the game and won it for us.

‘It was slightly different circumstances here, but they stood up to the challenge against lads who’ve played a lot of senior football. I thought they were quite comfortable.’