Danny Cowley says sending Pompey into battle against Rochdale without a centre forward is just another challenge - and one he is looking forward to meeting.

With John Marquis now suspended and joining the ranks of forward players unavailable, the Blues will have to improvise up front over Easter. Cowley has ben giving plenty of thought to how to do it - though he is keeping his cards close to his chest in terms of who will be asked to play the role.

He told The News: 'There’s definitely a challenge there in terms of the number nine position, but we accept that challenge and are looking forward to trying to find the answers.

‘Absolutely we have people who can do it. I think we’ve got really good players, tactically flexible players. We can be tactically flexible ourselves too and try to help the player in that position.

‘It’s going to be a player who is slightly out of position and we’re going to work really hard to give them some hard and fast rules. In terms of our options, I’m going to try to answer without giving too much away!

‘We have probably 3-4 different options that we could use and that we might utilise as the game unfolds. I think we have to try to find the best way for this group against this opponent.

‘It’s always about some adaptability and some flexibility, but never coming away from our principles and our game idea. It excites me that we’ve got to find some answers to a question that probably hasn’t been asked of us in recent times.’

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