Seventh ex-Portsmouth player joins the same club as remarkable reunion continues

The Pompey old-boys contingent has swelled to seven at Westleigh Park following another familiar arrival.

Boss Shaun North has once more dipped into his bulging Fratton Park contact book to strengthen the Hawks’ squad after last term’s play-off heartbreak.

His latest former Blues player is Harry Kavanagh, who joins the Southern League Premier South club following four seasons at Gosport, where the right-back established himself as a popular performer.

Having been with Pompey since the age of six until his release in the summer of 2021, the former Cowplain School pupil is well-known to North through the pair’s Academy coaching days.

Former Pompey season ticket holder

Now the defender, who made two appearances under Kenny Jackett, becomes the seventh former Pompey player to join the Hawks ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

He joins Harvey Laidlaw, Josh Dockerill, Nigel Atangana, Leon Maloney, Harvey Bradbury and Mitch Aston in committing their futures for next term, with the six featuring last season.

Pompey loanee Reuben Swann and Academy graduate Seok Jae Lee also represented the Hawks in 2024-25, when they agonisingly missed out of the play-offs by one point on the final day of the campaign.

Their ranks have now been bolstered by Kavanagh from Gosport, who skippered Pompey’s Academy as well as made two first-team appearances in the 2020-21 season.

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The former North Stand season ticket holder, who hails from Waterlooville, made his Blues debut in 1- defeat in November 2020 against West Ham Under-21s in the Leasing.com Trophy.

Aged 18 years, nine months and six days, he lined-up on the right-hand side of midfield in front of Haji Mnoga, as Jackett’s men lost 1-0 to the Hammers.

With the Blues ultimately qualifying from the group stages, his next outing was a right-back start at Peterborough in January 2021, although they suffered a crushing 5-1 defeat.

That would prove to be Kavanagh’s final involvement and he departed at the end of that season as Pompey controversially released all second and third year scholars, consisting of Kavanagh, Harry Anderson, Charlie Bell, Tom Bruce, Alfie Stanley, Leon Pitman, Harvey Rew, Gerard Storey and Eoin Teggart.

In addition, Seok Jae Lee and Harrison Brook subsequently turned down deals after graduating from the Academy, with both electing to continue their careers elsewhere.

Following trials at Derby and Eastleigh, Kavanagh joined Gosport in July 2021 and established himself as a first-team regular over the next four years.

He also featured in Alan Knight’s charity football match at Fratton Park last month, helping raise £40,000 for three cancer charities.

‘I can’t wait to get going’

When announcing his arrival on the Hawks website on Saturday, Kavanagh told them: ‘I’m happy to get this deal done, from everyone I’ve spoken to and everything I’ve seen this is a great place to be and I’m excited to start this new part of my journey. I can’t wait to get going in Pre-Season and I look forward to seeing all the fans at Westleigh Park.”

Incidentally, Bell has committed himself to Baffins next season, while free-scoring striker Brooks is remaining with Portchester following their promotion to the Isthmian South Central division.

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