Portsmouth pre-season: Five players with biggest point to prove to Mousinho
Portsmouth kick off their pre-season schedule against Woking on Tuesday.
While pre-season friendlies are generally seen as opportunities to gain match fitness and for new players to gel into the squad, there are some existing players will feel they have a point to prove during these games.
Here, Pompey News outlines five squad members with a point to prove during pre-season.
Ibane Bowat
There was a lot of excitement surrounding the arrival of Ibane Bowat from Fulham. The young defender appeared to have all the attributes to excel at Championship level.
Sadly, Pompey fans never got to see these attributes due to a knee injury ruling Bowat out for the season.
He’s back in training now though. While an unrelated knock might keep him out for the first couple of games, we can expect to see Bowat in a Pompey shirt again soon.
Jacob Farrell
Farrell is another defender who has suffered from horrendous luck with injuries since joining Pompey.
The Australian left-back played one first-team game at the start of last season against Sheffield United.
Since then, he has been struggling with knee injuries. When footage emerged of Farrell back in training, some Portsmouth fans joked that they’d forgotten who he was.
Now’s the time for the 22-year-old to remind them.
Hayden Matthews
Portsmouth paid a significant fee to sign Hayden Matthews in January. Eyebrows were raised considering the defender had only previously played in Australia.
Matthews had a bright start to his Portsmouth career after being thrust into the first team within days of signing. It was starting to look like money while spent until a nasty injury ended his season early.
The 21-year-old Aussie will use pre-season to prove he should be a starting centre-half.
Abdoulaye Kamara
There was a lot of expectation on Abdoulaye Kamara when he was signed by Mousinho last summer.
The Guinean was signed from Borussia Dortmund and expected to make an instant impact in Portsmouth’s midfield.
Truthfully, he was well off the pace in the games that he played, and he hasn’t featured since an FA Cup loss to Peterborough last January.
It’s not clear whether Mousinho has given up on Kamara entirely, but he’ll have to make an impact on the boss in pre-season if he has any hope of seeing game time for Pompey.
Thomas Waddingham
Waddingham is another Australian who has shown the potential to take the Championship by storm, only to get injured almost immediately.
The former Brisbane Roar striker scored on his debut against West Bromwich Albion. He managed four more appearances after that, before a hamstring injury ruled him out.
| Thomas Waddingham Portsmouth statistics | |
| Signed | January 2025 |
| Appearances | 5 |
| Goals | 1 |
Pompey’s squad is currently short of strikers, but Waddingham can use pre-season to show he can be relied upon to deliver the goods.
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