Pompey boss ‘hopeful’ of finally returning to action

DANNY COWLEY is confident Pompey’s trip to Cambridge United today will go ahead amid surging coronavirus cases.

The Blues haven’t been in action since their 2-0 victory over Morecambe on December 11, which has seen a seven-point gap build between them and the League One play-off places.

Cambridge have also been hit by Covid issues, with their last two scheduled fixtures cancelled.

But Cowley is optimistic the Abbey Stadium clash will go ahead – after a chance meeting between his assistant Nicky and U’s chief Mark Bonner.

Pompey’s boss told The News: ‘We’re just hopeful that the game will go ahead.

‘We’ve had good lines of communication between the two clubs and I think both us and Cambridge are in a similar situation where we had it quite early and are now through the worst of it.

‘Nicky (Cowley) met up with Mark Bonner actually at Ipswich’s game with Wycombe on Tuesday.

‘They had a sort of informal conversation which led us to believe (it could go ahead).

‘We’re both confident that, all being well, we’ll be able to play on Monday and we’re certainly hoping so because we’ve missed football.’

Pompey have seen fixtures against AFC Wimbledon, Exeter (Papa John’s

Trophy), Oxford United, and Plymouth all called-off due to positive Covid cases within their camp or, in the case of the latter fixture, the opposition squad.

And Cowley also explained how the club were made aware of their Pilgrims postponement on their way to Devon.

He continued: ‘We were super frustrated for everybody, really (Plymouth).

‘We had obviously prepared well and been up to Cheltenham (versus Plymouth) on Boxing Day. We had a good three days leading up to the game.

‘We were an hour into our coach journey to Plymouth when we had a phone call from (chief executive) Andy Cullen telling us to turn around.

‘It was no fault of Plymouth, these things happen. We’d like to wish all the players and staff at Plymouth that have picked Covid up well.’

Assuming it goes ahead, the Cambridge clash will take Pompey to the midway point in their league programme.