The secret Portsmouth friendly and 9-1 outcome which heralded unlikely double promotion glory

Few could have predicted they were witnessing two promotion-winning sides in action - not that anybody was watching anyway.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in July 2023, Pompey blitzed Crawley 9-1 in a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly.

Such was its secrecy, the fixture wasn’t publicised beforehand to prevent prying eyes gathering around the perimeter fence at the Blues’ Copnor Road training ground.

Indeed, Crawley never announced their team line-up, even afterwards when they published the sobering match report following a thumping defeat.

John Mousinho’s men were highly impressive in the 120-minute fixture, which consisted of four 30-minute periods and 22 players utilised - with newcomer Kusini Yengi bagging a hat-trick.

Whereas the visitors capitulated after introducing 11 substitutes on the hour mark, with the scoreline just 2-1 in Pompey’s advantage at that stage.

By the campaign’s end, the Blues were League One champions and finally back in the Championship for the first time since 2012.

As for Scott Lindsey’s Crawley, on Sunday they beat Crewe 2-0 in the League Two play-off final at Wembley to also seal promotion.

In truth, the Reds looked anything but candidates for a League One return that day at Pompey’s training ground and, unsurprisingly, many supporters subsequently tipped them for relegation to the non-league.

Lindsey himself afterwards ranted to their official website: ‘The second period was good for me because it shows that some of the players are not good enough.

‘They’re not good enough to be part of my squad, and I’ve made that quite clear in the dressing room afterwards. There were individuals in the second period who didn’t even want to be there, so unfortunately they can’t play for me.

‘It was a great exercise because it just goes to show that the boys who are going to be playing are capable, and the boys who I thought were nowhere near it, are in fact nowhere near it.’

For Pompey, it represented the fifth fixture of their pre-season campaign, but there were some noticeable debutants.

It was a first outing in Pompey colours for Gavin Whyte, Regan Poole, Abu Kamara and Yengi, while Colby Bishop returned following injury.

Joe Rafferty missed out through injury, while tellingly Denver Hume and Haji Mnoga never even made the 22-strong squad, with every player earmarked for 60 minutes of action.

What unfolded was a 9-1 victory in which Yengi scored a 22-minute hat-trick, while Anthony Scully netted twice and also claimed three assists following his 61st-minute introduction.

Certainly it was impressive from Scully and a tantalising glimpse of his talents in a season which would subsequently be devastated by injury, stemming from the opening game against Bristol Rovers.

As for Yengi, who had recovered from an ankle injury to feature, he announced his arrival in style - and would end the campaign as an Australian international with 13 goals in 31 outings for the Blues.

Other Pompey scorers that afternoon were Bishop, Zak Swanson, Tom Lowery and Christian Saydee.

Crawley's lone goal arrived from Harry Forster on 49 minutes, with Liam Kelly and Kellan Gordon involved in the build-up.

Sadly injury ruled Forster out of the play-off final almost 10 months later, but Kelly, Gordon, Nick Tsaroulla and Corey Addai, who also started against Pompey, were in the Wembley line-up.

Although, in the absence of that Crawley team sheet, it’s difficult to pinpoint others also involved on that wet July afternoon.

Nonetheless, that secret fixture would set the stage for successful seasons for both clubs, resulting in double promotion glory.