Ian Baird was pleased with the character and the quality of the Hawks this afternoon after they were edged out 2-1 by Portsmouth. 

Goals from Gareth Evans and Brett Pitman in either half saw Portsmouth beat the Hawks at a packed Westleigh Park.

Roarie Deacon equalised early in the second half, but his strike proved not to be enough to get a draw against their league 1 opponents.

However, a promising display will give the player plenty of confidence as pre-season goes up another gear.

But reflecting on today’s game, Baird was pleased about the way his side played.

He said: “I thought it was a really good performance from us.

“We had a game plan before the game to get our shape early, let them try and break us down.

“The lads adhered to that and we kept on nicking the ball of them, so all in all a very good day.”

Such a performance some felt that Havant were deserving of a draw, and Baird certainly felt that we had our fair share of chances.

“Wes Fogden’s created a great chance for himself, did the hard bit and then hit the ‘keeper, but the keeper did ever so well to do that to go 2-1 up.

“There’s a couple of other chances, Jonah Ayunga with a great save from the keeper but all in all some very good performances from everybody.”

With the boot on the other foot, Baird was pleased with how the players reacted to being the underdogs compared to their first two friendly wins.

“It is a reverse conversation to that we had last week at Alresford and Bognor on Tuesday.

“We were up against it today.

“My message to the players was to make it very, very hard for them and we certainly did do.”