Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley finally lifts lid on one of the biggest mysteries at Fratton Park - what's on Nicky's iPad!

Since the Cowley brothers took over at Fratton Park, the Blues coach has, more often than not, been spotted with the all-important device in hand.

It’s raised many questions and prompted many amusing conspiracy theories among the Fratton faithful.

It’s also seen a strong bond develop between said iPad and the fans, with the name ‘Nicky Cowley’s iPad’ also appearing on the ‘Pomp Twitter’ fantasy football league last term.

During The News’ live fans’ Q&A with the Blues boss on Facebook on Thursday, the manager fielded many questions – from his lack of strikers, to competing for players in the transfer market, to his intended formation next season.

Serious stuff, with the new campaign just three weeks away.

However, there was clearly other important matters on the agenda – namely Nicky’s iPad.

So much so that multiple supporters wanted the opportunity to quiz Danny on its purpose and to finally get to the bottom of its actual use.

And with much delight, the manager revealed the important role it plays in his management of Pompey.

Chuckling at the question posed, he said: ‘The iPad really is used on a match day for planning purposes to have all of our plans in-game.

‘The nature of football, it can be a fast-paced game, quite an emotional game, and sometimes to put all the considered eventualities of the game and consider all of your plans for every eventuality is important.

‘We can go to that which allows us to think under pressure. We call them "what ifs”.

‘For example, if we anticipate the opponent pressing in the 4-4-2 but then they change to the 4-3-3 press, how does that affect how we play?

‘Sometimes the opponent makes formation changes, personnel changes and all these things lead us to “what ifs”. The scoreboard always leads us to “what ifs” so it just supports us in that way.

Cowley added: ‘Nicky uses an app called Tactical Pad, which allows you to plan all your training sessions and allows you to create animation so you can show the players some tactical work, patterns of play, certain ways we’re trying to press the opponent, it might just be the conditions of some practice.

‘Most of the players are aesthetic learners, they learn by doing and are visual learners as well.

‘Sometimes they aren’t so good when you talk too much because their auditory learning is not a strength for them. It’s just to try to understand them and how they best learn.’