John Mousinho pledges more selection surprises to drive Portsmouth's Championship return

The head coach surprisingly dropped Jack Sparkes and Joe Rafferty for the midweek trip to Cambridge United, instead promoting Connor Ogilvie and Zak Swanson in their places.

The outcome was a goalless draw on an evening which saw the Blues extend their lead to four points at the top of League One.

Pompey now head to struggling Reading on Saturday, a side second from bottom of the table with financial concerns amid a planned large-scale supporter protest.

Considering Ogilvie’s injury absence, Sparkes will be one definite change – but Mousinho has revealed he is ready for more rotation of his starting XI.

He told The News: ‘I know it’s probably a bit of a shock when Zak comes in for Joe, mainly because Joe Rafferty’s form has been so good, but, had Zak not had that personal tragedy, it would have been hard to shift him from the side after the Derby performance.

‘Certainly for what Joe has done at the start of the season and since the Barnsley game, it’s very, very hard to shift him as well. So you have two right-backs in really, really good form.

‘When you see either of those on a team-sheet hopefully now it’s not a huge shock to the system, we are trying to manage the workload and manage the games.

‘No-one has come in and complained about being tired, it’s just up to me to try to pre-empt that.

‘There are tough, tough weeks which the schedule throws up, so it might be wise to utilise what we’ve got in the building at the moment. We have players fit, fighting for the shirt and doing a brilliant job of making my selection decision really difficult.

‘I wouldn’t do it if the squad wasn’t strong. If you look at all positions, maybe with the exception of Colby up top, we have rotated everything and different players have played in different positions.

‘Ryley Towler and Conor Shaughnessy have both played left-sided centre-half, Sean Raggett and Regan Poole have played right-sided centre-half, and the full-backs have changed. Will Norris hasn’t changed in the league, but Ryan Schofield has played plenty of cup games.

‘In the middle of the park, we’ve seen different combinations. Ben Stevenson and Joe Morrell, Joe and Marlon, Alex Robertson and Joe more recently.

‘There have also been plenty of players in the 10 and out wide, we think it’s a real strength to the squad that players can come in and rotate different positions.’

After this weekend, Pompey face three games in seven days, with an FA Cup trip to Chesterfield (November 5), Leyton Orient in the EFL Trophy (November 7) and Charlton at home on November 11.

And Mousinho is keen to keep his players fresh and energised.

He added: ‘We are playing on the Sunday and then the Tuesday straight away, so we have to make sure we’re bang on it in terms of our physical preparation and fitness,

‘There's no time to rest after Leyton Orient because we have a match on the Saturday (Charlton) as well, so I think it’s wise for us to make sure we manage the squad.’