LATEST: Portsmouth boss confirms position over massive Barnsley showdown going ahead amid international call-ups

Pompey’s huge promotion battle with Barnsley this month will go ahead.

That’s the belief of Blues boss John Mousinho, who is confident the anticipated Fratton Park showdown will not fall foul of call-ups.

Mousinho has outlined his personal desire to play the match with the in-form Tykes, despite the meeting being scheduled for March 23 - which is over the next international break.

Pompey are set to be without Paddy Lane, with the Northern Ireland international in outstanding form this season while Kusini Yengi, who’s also made a big impact in his maiden campaign in English football, likely to be called up for Australia.

Neill Collins’ side is expected to be without Jamaican international Devante Cole, who’s fired in 17 goals this term, along with his countryman Jon Russell - meaning neither side hit the three call-up threshold to postpone the fixture.

Despite the loss of important figures, Mousinho’s preference is to see the game take place as scheduled at what is sure to be a crackling Fratton Park.

He said: ‘At the moment, in terms of the internationals we anticipate being called up, Joe Morrell and Terry Devlin are both out injured.

‘We looked at Barnsley as well and it doesn’t look like they are going to get the three, so it looks like the game will go ahead.

‘We want to play the games. If the game’s called off, the game’s called off and that’s fine. It’s not been an issue for us this season.

‘The reverse fixture was called off relatively early and we wanted to get it back on. We’ve always wanted to do that. We rescheduled that for straight after the Derby game and it gave us an interesting logistical challenge, but we want to get the games played.

‘So we’d deal with it, but Barnsley have a game they need to make up as well so that would maybe make things slightly congested at the back end of the year.’

When assessing the losses of Lane and Yengi up against Barnsley pair Cole and Russell, Mousinho doesn’t see either team particularly gaining an edge over the other.

He feels both set-ups look to have the players in their squad to offset losing significant options.

Mousinho added: ‘It’s swings and roundabouts. As confident as we’d be if we’re missing those players, because we’ve got really good squad depth, I’m sure Barnsley would be the same.

‘If you look at (John) McAtee scoring against Bolton and Sam Cosgrove, who always causes problems, they’ve got plenty of options as well.’