Portsmouth boss answers big question on starting Manchester City arrival at Leyton Orient after eye-catching debut

That’s the view of Pompey boss John Mousinho after the arrival from Manchester City’s debut at Forest Green on Tuesday night.

Robertson was used off the bench at New Lawn the day after signing on loan for the season.

The 20-year-old has been restricted to under-21 football in pre-season, but Mousinho feels he can now handle the cut and thrust of League One action..

Mousinho said: ‘I think he is ready, yes.

‘The question for us would be whether he has that match fitness.

In terms of playing for the development side with Manchester City he just hasn’t had that competitive action so far.

‘Even in terms of our pre-season, I would class the games against AFC Wimbledon and Bristol City as close to competitive games as you can possibly get.

‘So that gave our players a lot, but Alex hasn’t had that.

‘He’s still in very, very good shape, though, so we’re going to keep monitoring him.’

Mousinho explained coming to a decision over whether Robertson could handle the transition into men’s football from under-21 level was aided by his progress into the Australia international side.

The early signs on that front are promising after impressing on his maiden Pompey appearance.

Mousinho added: ‘I thought he was pretty eye-catching when he came on Tuesday and showed those glimpses of why we brought him to the club.

‘We’re fortunate enough to have seen that quite a few times - that’s our job.

‘We’ve watched Alex in the under-21s league and we’ve watched him do well.

‘I guess the only unknown for us and a calculated one was how he’d do in league football.

‘We’ve yet to see that but we’ve seen him in the cup game and training and everything we’ve seen so far in terms of his development, and the fact he’s been away with Australia, tells us he’s ready to impact the first team at Portsmouth - that’s what we will be pushing him to do.’