While here at Privett Park we have every sympathy with the situation Pompey are dealing with, on Thursday evening we had received confirmation from the Pompey management team the core of the team would be players who hadn’t featured at Bristol City the day before.

On that basis we had gone ahead and made arrangements for the Pompey game, which are now for nothing, leaving us with a big gap in Head Coach Shaun Gale’s pre-season preparations.

The decision to cancel could and should have been taken earlier in our view.

Not only is a game against Pompey highly anticipated by fans and players alike, but to a club like Gosport Borough it is a vital source of income.

We would like to apologise to our own fans for the disappointment this cancellation will cause but they can rest assured we are working hard to find an alternative fixture. It is also always a pleasure to see many old friends among Pompey fans, so we appreciate the disappointment will ripple still further.

As a club, Boro’ have consistently bent over backwards to help Pompey, most recently hosting two development XI fixtures for them last spring, as well as helping out the women’s team at short notice hosting a game against Southampton.

Many of us at Privett Park have close associations with PFC going back many years and it is to be hoped Pompey will be able to make good on the huge well of goodwill here at Gosport this cancellation has put at risk.