Portsmouth ease to friendly win as players given green light for Burnley

And the defender was joined by Jacob Farrell, as he made his comeback in the 3-0 behind-closed-doors win at the Blues’ Hilsea training ground.

Shaun North brought a young team down to take on a strong Pompey side, with players needing minutes after a lack of games.

And North’s team offered a ‘competitive’ test for John Mousinho’s men, with the likes of Abdoulaye Kamara, Freddie Potts, Harvey Blair and Matt Ritchie featuring in a match played over 60 minutes.

The positive news for Pompey was Poole coming through a 45-minute runout, off the back of his 14-minute appearance against West Brom on Sunday.

The former Lincoln did so with no issues, following his 10-month lay-off after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) at Chesterfield last November.

Farrell’s Fratton career has also been waiting for lift-off, following his arrival from Central Coast Mariners on a four-year deal in July.

The 22-year-old has been slowed by a knee injury picked up in training, but is now deemed available for selection as Pompey go to Burnley on Saturday.

Conor Shaughnessy is rated doubtful for the Turf Moor trip, however, while strikers Kusini Yengi and Mark O’Mahony are expected to miss the game.

Mousinho was thankful for the test Hawks brought, while the visitors got the experience of going up against high-level opposition.

He said: The game went well with Shaun bringing down his side and us having a very competitive team out, with players who need minutes and players coming back from injury. It was a proper competitive game.

‘The most important thing for them was to go get through the minutes and not pick anything up, and we managed to do that.

‘It was partially for Regan, but there were a few. Regan needs minutes, Jacob Farrell needs minutes and if you look at Abdoulaye and Freddie, they came in without too many games in pre-season.

‘Matt Ritchie falls into that category and so does Harvey, who played a little bit more for Liverpool in pre-season.

‘So there were plenty of areas where we needed players to get minutes - and we worked on that.’