Portsmouth boss reveals thoughts on chances for former Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur starlets and blooding youngsters on final day against Wycombe Wanderers

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John Mousinho admitted the final-day clash with Wycombe could offer a chance to throw in Pompey youngsters.

And the Blues boss is weighing up whether to give promising former Spurs keeper Josh Oluwayemi a runout at Fratton Park on Sunday.

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Injury will rob rising academy starlet Koby Mottoh of a senior appearance as the season comes to a close, however, but Harry Jewitt-White could play some part after his full league debut against Accrington last month.

Mousinho is wary of maintaining Pompey’s 10-game unbeaten end to the season, but with the likes of Ryley Towler, Di’Shon Bernard and Paddy Lane all 22 or under, feels there could be a young flavour to his side.

From left: Josh Oluwayemi, Harry Jewitt-White and Koby Mottoh.From left: Josh Oluwayemi, Harry Jewitt-White and Koby Mottoh.
From left: Josh Oluwayemi, Harry Jewitt-White and Koby Mottoh.

When asked if he could give younger players a chance, Mousinho said: ‘Quite possibly, though we don’t want to disrupt the form and focus on winning the game.

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‘That’s the most important thing. It may be the end of the season, but the fans want a display and Portsmouth and, as far as I’m concerned, we want to finish above Wycombe. That’s as good as we can do right now - so we need to try to do that.

‘So we’ll be sensible about what we can do, but there may be a couple of opportunities to see what we can bring in and play the younger players.

‘There’s possibly a chance for Josh, but we want to approach it in the right way and introduce him at the right time. We’ve looked at the games so far and felt they were right for Matt, but he’s certainly in the running for a spot.’

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Mousinho admitted the timing of the late-season opportunity to look at young talent hasn’t worked out for Mottoh, who’s hit 15 under-18 goals.

He added: ‘Koby was someone we’ve thought about bringing in over the past couple of weeks, but he’s picked up an injury. That’s been why we haven’t seen Koby, we don’t want to push him.

‘We made that enquiry with the academy, but It’s more important for us to protect him. We looked at him for the Accrington game, but he’d picked up an injury and is recovering from that. It’s the right thing to do.’

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