Woking vs Portsmouth preview: Team news, lineups, prediction
Portsmouth take on Woking on Tuesday in the first of their scheduled pre-season friendlies.
All eyes will be on new signing Adrian Segecic, as well as the trialists Nathan Ferguson and Stuart Moore, who are both expected to feature.
This match will provide John Mousinho with his first chance to run the rule over his squad in preparation for the new Championship season.
Below, Pompey News predicts Mousinho’s line-up and the result of the game.
Team news
Segecic has impressed in pre-season training and is expected to make his debut in a Portsmouth shirt.
The match might come too soon for Ibane Bowat. There has been a lot of hype surrounding the youngster’s return from his knee injury, but he has been suffering with minor unrelated problems in the last few days.
Josh Murphy, Callum Lang and Colby Bishop have also suffered from slight knocks and might not be risked for this friendly, at least not from the start.
Mousinho has promised game time to trialists Ferguson and Moore, both of whom might start the game.
Portsmouth are also playing away at Farnborough the day after this game, so any fit players who don’t feature against Woking will likely play in that fixture instead.
Predicted lineup
It will be interesting to see who Mousinho pairs together in the centre of defence. With so many defensive injuries last season, it’s not clear who Mousinho’s favoured pairing for this campaign might be.
Hayden Matthews may be given the chance to pair with Conor Shaughnessy in the centre of defence in this game. Both were injured for the last few months of last season, and haven’t been paired together before, so it would be interesting to see how they get on.
It will also be intriguing to see where Segecic plays too. He primarily operated as number 10 for Sydney FC. However, there’s a possibility that Mousinho utilises him on the right wing.
If Murphy, Lang and Bishop don’t feature, this game could provide a great opportunity for Thomas Waddingham and Paddy Lane to impress their manager.
Prediction: Woking 0-1 Portsmouth
Portsmouth may not utilise all of their biggest attacking stars, but they should still have enough to get past a National League team.
Mousinho will argue that match fitness is more important than the result, but it will still be nice for the travelling Portsmouth fans to have at least one goal to cheer.
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