John Mousinho shares Portsmouth plan to give fringe players more minutes

Portsmouth are set to play another behind-closed-doors friendly match at their Hilsea training base during the international break.

The 60-minute bounce match against Havant & Waterlooville last month proved beneficial as players returned from injury and gathered match sharpness, and now with members of the squad needing minutes again, the club are finalising another opponent.

Owen Moxon and Terry Devlin have not featured since August, and Jordan Archer - signed in the summer - is still awaiting his debut since dropping to third-choice in the goalkeeping department.

Head coach John Mousinho told The News [9 October]: "We are thinking about having a friendly on Friday, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.

"It’s to give minutes to the lads. We’ve got a lot of players who need the minutes and players who could do with it. It gives us the chance to work on a few bits."

Portsmouth keeping squad sharp

With such a large squad, Mousinho was always going to have a task on his hands to keep everyone at Portsmouth content.

Having seen players make welcome returns from their long-term injury issues, the problem now is having to leave senior pros out of matchday squads each week.

Moxon - who made important contributions last season - is among those not getting a look-in right now, with youngster Devlin unable to get the appropriate minutes for his development either.

Archer will not have been under any illusions that he was going to be number one when he arrived at Fratton Park, but he is a pedigree goalkeeper competing with two fellow men of experience in Will Norris and Nicolas Schmid.

With no Under-21 side available to give players the action they require, these bounce matches are integral and offer much-needed match stimulation for the majority not away on international duty.

In other Portsmouth news, a player released in the summer is making waves in non-league.

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