'Lively, pacy and beats defenders': Why Portsmouth faithful will enjoy watching exciting newcomer at Gosport

What’s more, Sammy Silvera will provide fans with the first tantalising glimpse of his talents at Privett Park on Tuesday night (7pm).

The exciting Australian international is pencilled in for his Blues debut against Gosport in John Mousinho’s side’s first pre-season friendly of the summer.

According to Rich Hughes, Pompey had previously pursued Silvera last summer, only for Middlesbrough to win the chase.

He went on to score six goals in 42 outings, which included 12 Championship starts, only for Boro to subsequently offer him to the Blues on a season-long loan for 2024-25.

And Pompey fans will have the chance to judge the 23-year-old’s ability for themselves against the Southern League Premier South side owned by Iain McInnes.

Hughes told The News: ‘We enquired about Sammy last summer before he came over from Central Coast Mariners, but he chose to go to Middlesbrough. I texted Kieran Scott, their head of football. and said “Great pick up”.

‘This summer, while very much believing in Sammy, they wanted to change things around a bit, so Kieran texted and asked whether we would be interested in bringing him in. We were delighted to get that deal done.

‘He will definitely benefit the group this season and has already shown really sharp glimpses in training of the type of player he is.

‘Looking back, when Middlesbrough became interested in Sammy, it made it more difficult to get the deal done, but we had already done a lot of work on the player, so 12 months later we were in a comfortable position to bring him in.

‘He’s a really well-balanced, attacking wide player, who can affect both sides of the pitch. He has a really sharp turn of pace and there is more to come in his game, in terms of running in behind and goal conversion.

‘We will add those factors into his game and he’ll be a player fans will very much enjoy watching this year because he’s lively, beats defenders, and has bits of end product as well.

‘Sammy can play in either wide position, right or left. He has versatility to play in both and there will be times this season where we’ll use him in different scenarios.’

Under talented young bosses Pat Suraci and Joe Lea, Gosport suffered the agony of a play-off defeat last season after finishing fourth.

Their squad on display against Pompey is expected to include a number of former Fratton Park faces, including Danny Hollands, Harry Kavanagh, Bradley Tarbuck and Alfie Stanley.

Hughes added: ‘Sammy is still a relatively young player and Middlesbrough have loaned him to continue his development.

‘I assume their aim this year is to try to achieve promotion and some variation of that, so they’re going to put a squad in place which helps them do that.

‘The perennial battle of player development and achieving success is always difficult, so they want Sammy to get a lot of games - and decided we were the best location for him to continue his development.’