POMPEY MAKE HAWKS GRAFT
HAVANT & W 0 PORTSMOUTH 3
LEAGUE One Portsmouth ultimately gained a comfortable success over Havant & Waterlooville in front a bumper crowd lapping up the glorious July sunshine.
The National League South Hawks had only enjoyed two training sessions prior to the game and found it difficult to keep up with their EFL opponents who had been back for 12 days.
Ronan Curtis hit an early long distance drive which was flipped over the bar by Hawks keeper Ross Worner. Curtis then teed up Marcus Harness inside the area but a brilliant block by defender Joe Newton kept the scoreline level.
Pompey were doing most of the attacking and two goals in six minutes saw them lead at the break. Ryan Tunnicliffe opened the scoring on 34 minutes, netting with the help of a deflection off Hawks skipper Joe Oastler.
Then, five minutes before the interval, a superb Harness delivery saw Josh Passley put past his own keeper while under pressure from Curtis.
The visitors increased their lead with less than three minutes of the second half gone. Liam Vincent curled home a brilliant free-kick.
The home side threatened to pull one back on the hour when good work by winger Gianni Crichlow saw a brilliant cross set up striker Danny Wright but the former Torquay star fired over the bar.
Hawks second half stopper Charlie Searle then produced an amazing save from close range.
Hawks boss Paul Doswell said: “The game was a good workout for us, very useful after just a couple of training sessions.
“It got minutes into all our squad and we will step it up on Tuesday when we travel to Alton.”