Guy pleased with competition for places at Pompey
Guy Whittingham will have a full squad to choose from at Mansfield on Saturday.
Johnny Ertl has been suspended for the last three matches after being sent off against Oxford on the opening day.
But the Blues skipper is not guaranteed to walk straight back into the side.
Simon Ferry and Romain Padovani impressed in Pompey’s midfield in last week’s victory over Morecambe.
Keeping every member of the squad happy could provide Guy Whittingham with a headache – but it is one he is happy to suffer.
The Blues boss said: “In order to be successful you need to have a good squad, with players who are going to play well on the ball and others who are going to be good at defending.
“The players we have here are realising that it’s not always about the starting 11.
“There will be ins and outs throughout the season and sometimes it will depend on who we’re playing.
“But you want competition for places in your squad. The final decision is mine, but I like to have a lot of opinions from all the other staff members.”
The Blues travel to the One Call Stadium to face a Mansfield side who won promotion from the Conference Premier last season.
Whittingham said: “They’ve done extremely well and look to have a fantastic team spirit there.
“The manager has instilled a great work ethic and we know it’s going to be a tough game for us.
“We know they’ll be physical and they’ll also be confident because they got their first win last week – and it was well deserved.
“They played extremely well against Wycombe and we’ll be mindful of that – we have to make sure we’re at our best.
“But we had a good result and performance of our own last week and it was even more pleasing that we did so without conceding.”