Alex Bass heads youthful Portsmouth side to face Aldershot

Alex Bass, seen here pulling off a save against Bognor last week, will feature for a young Pompey XI against Aldershot tomorrow night. Picture: Tommy McMillan

placeholder image — Alex Bass, seen here pulling off a save against Bognor last week, will feature for a young Pompey XI against Aldershot tomorrow night. Picture: Tommy McMillan

Pompey will field a young side for their latest pre-season friendly.

The Blues are scheduled to travel to Aldershot tomorrow evening (7.30pm).

However, the Pompey XI team is to include just Alex Bass, Matt Casey, Joe Hancott and Leon Maloney in terms of players with first-team experience.

Team selection has been dictated by the Blues’ behind-closed-doors friendly at Brighton’s training ground earlier in the day.

The unused substitutes from the previous first-team friendly usually provide a good barometer to the strength of a forthcoming Pompey XI fixture.

At Stevenage on Saturday, they included Bass, Sean Raggett, Brandon Haunstrup, Louis Dennis, Gareth Evans and Christian Burgess.

Yet they are to feature against a Brighton XI tomorrow morning, subsequently ruling all but Bass out of travelling to Aldershot that evening.

Instead, Pompey will be represented against the non-leaguers by Casey, Maloney and Hancott, the trio having made their first-team debuts in the Checkatrade Trophy in recent seasons.

They will be joined by Bass, Craig MacGillivray’s goalkeeping understudy, in addition to members of Mark Kelly’s current academy group for the clash with the National League club.

Aldershot were actually relegated from the National League last season, having finished in 21st position.

However, they were reinstated following Gateshead’s financial problems and remain at the fifth level of the English football pyramid.

Former Pompey first-team coach Gary Waddock lost his position as Shots boss following last season’s disappointment, replaced by Danny Searle.