Tom Naylor: Portsmouth reaping fitness rewards from Kenny Jackett's friendly programme

The Blues have so far faced Reading, while on Thursday hosted a 60-minute in-house match at Fratton Park.

Tomorrow they travel to an unnamed Championship club for yet another fixture designed to bolster match fitness.

Pompey’s friendly options are restricted, with no other League One or League Two clubs in action outside those involved in play-offs.

But their skipper believes the existing schedule is helping the side shape up nicely.

Naylor told The News: ‘The training is quite intense, which helps, with 8 v 8s and 6 v 6s, which gets you match fit as well.

‘Then we played Reading last week and were each given 45 minutes. That was our first game since Fleetwood, while we have another match tomorrow. There are also in-house games.

‘It’s a bit different to a proper pre-season, which involves more running at the start.

‘In this instance, we did so much work ourselves, ticking over individually, we didn’t need to do that. We just wanted to get straight back into football, the fitness side takes care of itself.

‘We need match situations and the only teams we can play are those from the Championship.

‘League One and League Two are finished now and the Championship started their fixtures again today. There are only a few teams we can actually play.

‘Maybe we can do it ourselves, try to work as much as we can and go from there. We have a bigger squad than last year and we can play against each other for in-house games to get the legs going.

‘We did it on Thursday, it was a maximum of 60 minutes, with 30 minutes each way. It’s good because everyone is at the same level, so it's a good standard and decent.

‘I’m not sure when the next one is after this weekend, it hasn't been confirmed yet.’

Pompey’s play-off campaign kicks-off against Oxford United at Fratton Park on July 3.

And Naylor has been impressed with how fitness levels have been maintained by his team-mates during lockdown.

He added: ‘Everyone is fine, we’ve been looking after our own bodies, ticking over. Everyone is professional and knows what their body needs.

‘The first couple of weeks on your own in lockdown, it was quite hard getting up in the morning doing this and that, but we kept up our fitness work.

‘I felt good against Reading, I wasn’t tired, I could have run for longer. But we don’t want to be getting injuries.’

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