It was billed as a ‘Pompey XI’ fixture, but Kenny Jackett decided to utilise his entire first team squad against Gosport.
Aside from goalkeeper Alex Bass – who sustained an ankle injury at Stevenage on Saturday – every player was given 45 minutes to impress at Privett Park.
Reeco Hackett-Fairchild bagged a second half brace to add to Ronan Curtis' opener, while Ryan Williams wrapped up the scoring in a 4-0 triumph.
And with more than a week to go until the League One opener against Shrewsbury, Jackett was pleased to see his troops get more minutes under their belt.
The Blues boss said: “We’ve done a lot of training over the past few months – first with the build-up to the play-offs and then this pre-season.
“So rather than just having even more of that, it did feel right for us to field a strong team on this occasion.
"We’ve done a lot of training over the past few months – first with the build-up to the play-offs and then this pre-season."
“The game was a useful workout for us and allowed us to look at different patterns of play. There were some good combinations and some good goals.
“We’ve got some really exciting forward options and can hopefully keep everyone fit. It was nice to see Reeco and Ellis Harrison back after their injuries.”
“Hopefully we can take some confidence from the performance and it also helps us to get used to playing regular football again because the games will come thick and fast.”
Pompey began their competitive fixtures at the weekend with a penalty shoot-out win at Stevenage to progress in the Carabao Cup.
Jackett said: “Saturday was a hard game and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. It would have been easy to feel sorry for ourselves after what happened in the play-offs.
“But instead we produced a good second half performance and found a way to win the tie, so I was pleased with that.
“There are obviously some things that need to be ironed out and we don’t want to give such poor goals away.”
4⃣ goals in Gosport
— Portsmouth FC (@Pompey) September 1, 2020
🔵 Ryan Williams rounded off tonight's scoring#Pompey pic.twitter.com/0uZLvyiT4l