At the end of a season blighted by injury setbacks, it was somehow fitting that such issues were still affecting John Mousinho's team selection on the final day.

A 1-1 draw at Birmingham brought down the curtain on a campaign in which Pompey scored a point more than last term and - for the second year running - secured their safety with a couple of games to spare.

Few will remember this last-day draw for too long and Mousinho felt it was the right outcome on a mixed day for his side.

'We made a decent start, got the goal we deserved and played pretty well in patches,' he told club media. 'But it became a bit of a strange contest and there were a few times when we just didn’t do the right things.

'When we showed the quality we have in the side – and the goal was a good example of that – then we caused a lot of problems. I was pretty pleased overall – especially when considering the number of changes we made – and the fact there wasn’t much riding on the game.

'Birmingham came here at full strength, while we were far from that, so the performance was a good one. We could have won the match and we also could have lost it, so a draw was probably a fair result in the end.'

The chosen team raised a few eyebrows - although fans would not have expected to see Josh Murphy for the season finale, Colby Bishop, Harvey Blair and Madiodio Dia were also absent from the final Pompey squad of the season.

There were more changes needed during the game as John Swift and Connor Ogilvie were both unable to get through the 90.

Mousinho explained: 'Josh had minor surgery on Thursday, but that was pre-planned and it was just about when we going to do it. Colby was feeling his hamstrings because of the workload he’s had and there was absolutely no point in risking him.

'Harvey pulled up with an injury in training and although it was very minor, again we were just in protection mode. Swifty rolled his ankle – it’s a contact one and we’ll see how that settles down – while Connor hurt his hip flexor and on another day would have stayed on.

'Jojo has unfortunately had a family bereavement and that’s why he wasn’t involved, so we send him our best wishes.'

Photo: Action Images via Reuters