‘A good time’: Portsmouth boss reveals why Barnsley postponement's huge news for promotion battle with Derby County, Bolton Wanderers, Peterborough & Co

John Mousinho is adamant Pompey’s postponed clash with Barnsley is positive news for his side’s promotion bid.

And that stance is underlined by the fact the Blues boss could have as many as NINE players back by the time the rescheduled meeting with the promotion rivals takes place.

News emerged last Friday the Fratton Park clash with Neill Collins’ side, slated for this Saturday, had been surprisingly called off.

Myles Peart-Harris’ leftfield Jamaica under-23 call-up took Pompey over the required three player threshold to call a game off, with Paddy Lane in Northern Ireland’s squad and Kusini Yengi on Australia duty.

The match was quickly rescheduled for April 16, making for a huge penultimate week of the season off the back of the trip to promotion rivals Bolton and ensuing visit from Wigan.

With the match more than four weeks off, it gives Pompey the chance to get players back from a crippling injury list which has impacted their promotion charge.

The Blues ended Saturday with a mind-blowing 15 players unavailable, as Christian Saydee picked up a hamstring and both Joe Rafferty and Lane missing the London Road win through illness.

Those three players are all expected to be in contention by the time Barnsley arrive at PO4 next month.

Of the other absences, Connor Ogilvie (knee), Tom Lowery (hamstring), Ben Stevenson (knee), Anthony Scully (ankle), Callum Lang (ankle) and Tino Anjorin (hamstring) could all realistically be available to face the Tykes.

Mousinho said: ‘It does feel like it has come at a good time.

‘It felt like that before the Peterborough game and sometimes you do want to keep a bit of momentum after a win, at this stage of the season it’s come at the perfect time.

‘We’ll get a couple of players back and there’s the illness, so those players can get back on track. 

‘They’ll be fine in a couple of weeks’ time and Christian should be okay as well, so I think it has come at a perfect time.’

Mousinho told how the news of Peart-Harris being selected for Jamaica was not anticipated by Pompey. Meanwhile, Abu Kamara is on standby for England under-20s, as they face Poland and the Czech Republic.

He added: ‘He’s been called up for the Jamaican 23s.

‘We were fully expecting the Barnsley game to go ahead, but we got the call on Wednesday afternoon.

‘Losing three players at that point we decided, once we did all the requisite paperwork with the EFL, we were going to call the game off.

‘I understand the frustration of fans, because they spend a huge amount of money making sure they can attend the games, but it’s one of those things that’s really out of the club’s hands.

‘Even if Myles hadn’t been called up we went into Friday and Abu was on the standby list for ‘England under-20s. If he had been called up to the full squad it would’ve been a Friday cancellation.

‘It’s one of those that is frustrating, but we wanted to do everything to let the fans know as soon as possible.’