Danny Cowley was delighted to watch Pompey beat Peterborough 2-0 a week before the League One season starts - but admiited it had been a tough week for the club.
Ryan Tunnicliffe and Ronan Curtis scored the goals in frontof an appreciative Fratton Park crowd and Cowley said it had been a useful runout.
He told the club website: 'It was a good performance at the end of a tough week for us after picking up some Covid cases. That’s really frustrating because we’ve been working hard to keep our bubble as secure as we possibly can. But that’s the way of the world — and I know a lot of clubs are experiencing similar difficulties at the moment.
'When you’ve got a small squad like we have, though, you can’t really afford to lose anybody and we don’t currently have any of the academy players available. It’s been a challenging week, so to finish with a display as good as we saw against Peterborough was a real positive.'
Cowley explained the absence of loanees Gavin Bazunu and Gassan Ahadme. 'Gassan had a little but of tightness in the hip area, but trained in the morning and we’ve just wrapped him up in cotton wool.
'That creates an opportunity for someone else and I thought Reeco Hackett-Fairchild did great for us, with a lot of energy and intensity. Gavin played against Chelsea on the Tuesday and we’re just being very careful and patient with him.'