Fun in the Spanish sun

Pompey have gone off to Spain for a training camp ahead of the FA cup tie with Preston on Sunday - Villa are also staying in the same complex.

Harry Redknapp has told The News that he feels this will benefit the squad and will aid in our FA cup and European quests: 'we're going to Spain for a few days. We don't play until Sunday so it is the ideal time to do it.

'We can get away and have some team bonding. It's a nice facility and it will be good to use.

'Our pitches are heavy so we need to do it. We need to train on a nice pitch for a few days.

'Villa are out there. They'll train in the morning and we'll train in the afternoon.

'All the teams do it. It will be good to get away.'

It will be a good bonding session, and all being well should yield the desired effect?

As said it will also give the training pitches a little time to recuperate after a heavy pounding recently - the last thing we need is to be training on these in the state they could well be in at the moment, as god only knows what damage they could do...

This is another example though that we desperately need to be able to push on with our proposals for a new training complex - but for this we need the local authorities to help us out!

Sylvain Distin and Dave Nugent are recovering well from injuries and are part of the squad out there with it thought that both should be fit for the weekend. New father Glen Johnson along with Sulley Muntari - back after the African nations - have also joined up with the squad.

PLAY UP POMPEY!