Meet the surprise inclusion in Portsmouth's squad list after catching boss John Mousinho's eye

Nonetheless, Spencer Spurway’s determined drive to make up for lost time has caught the eye of John Mousinho.

In the aftermath of the transfer window’s closure, clubs were required to submit their squad make ups to the Football League.

In Pompey’s case, the under-21s list included Terry Devlin, Abu Kamara, Christian Saydee, Alex Robertson, Toby Steward, Ryley Towler – and Spurway.

As a second-year scholar last term, the Purbrook youngster suffered a torrid time with injury, largely involving his back, while also broke his arm in pre-season.

Those set-backs prompted the Blues to offer him third-year scholarship terms in the summer, thereby granting the defender more time to flourish.

Subsequently, with two Academy appearances, plus an outing in the Hampshire Senior Cup at Gosport, Spurway appears well over his injury issues.

While he also finds himself included on Pompey’s squad list.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Spencer has been really unlucky with injury through his time in the Academy, so has been taken on as a third year.

‘He was still injured at the start of this season, but has now made his comeback and played a couple of the Academy games as an overage player. Although wasn't eligible to face Brentford in the Youth Alliance Cup.

‘Spencer is an all-action centre-half who has a great amount of passion as well as quality about him.

‘The reason we’ve taken him on longer is to have a good look and see how he develops – and whether that’s an option we might want to take forward.

‘He has a huge amount of work to do because of the fact he’s missed so much football, but he’s trained with us a couple of times and is a really good young lad who is very, very diligent.

‘It’s well worth having a look at him.’

Spurway featured for Pompey’s under-18s in Wednesday night’s 125th Anniversary match against the Royal Artillery.

And he capped the occasion by netting the Blues’ second goal, struck from 25 yards, in the 3-2 victory at Privett Park.

Mousinho added: ‘Spencer’s had a couple of different injuries and a lot of it was to do with growth, causing a couple of stress fractures, which is pretty much as bad as it sounds.

‘It was a case of making sure he had a bit of time for his body to be able to catch up with where he was.

‘Everything has now settled down and he’s looking in good shape.’