The big prediction over Wigan Athletic signing as former West Ham United and Lincoln City man builds Portsmouth return

Anthony Scully has been backed to have a big Pompey impact over the second half of the season.

And the winger has been tipped to lighten the goal load off the Blues’ strikers as he builds his comeback.

Scully is now two appearances into his return from four months out, after knee surgery halted his progress following his summer arrival from Wigan.

The 24-year-old looked bright in the second half of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy defeat to AFC Wimbledon, came on late against Fleetwood last weekend and was an unused sub at Bristol Rovers. Now team-mate Joe Rafferty is looking forward to the former West Ham man building momentum in the coming weeks.

Rafferty knows first hand how much of a danger Scully can be for Pompey moving forward, while his 15-goal haul for Lincoln in the 2021-22 campaign underlines his goal threat.

He said: ‘I’ve played against Scully a few times in my career and he’s always been a real threat for me to deal with. I remember last year Danny Cowley spoke really highly of him when we were preparing to play Wigan, though he didn’t end playing in that game. You can look at him like a new signing.

‘In pre-season in Spain I played up against him and he was really good, really sharp. If we can get that Anthony Scully back out there I think he can be a really good signing for us.

‘He’s really good technically on the ball. He’s a bit of a drifter on the left-hand side and likes to drift in on to his right, though he can go on his left foot.

‘From what I’ve seen of him he has a lot of quality and has shown he can score goals at this level, too. That’s exactly what we need now, we need as many goals as we can from different areas so the burden isn’t all on the number nine.’