Paul Jones not expected to be recalled by Portsmouth

The Portsmouth News reported that Crawley’s on-loan ‘keeper may be recalled by Pompey following this Saturday’s home game against Hartlepool.

This is because Portsmouth’s Liverpool loanee Ryan Fulton is going to miss the Easter games due to international commitments for Scotland U21s.

Yates is not expecting Pompey to take back their stopper, according to his conversation with the south coast club.

But if they do, Yates will be happy with the outcome, which is likely would mean a recall into the team of young keeper Callum Preston.

Yates said: “I’ve heard it, yeah, but we will let the Portsmouth News have their moment. At the moment, he doesn’t have to go back.

“I’ve met with my mate at Portsmouth yesterday (Wednesday) and at the moment, he hasn’t got to go back and we will talk again after the weekend.

“The problem is, their lad Fulton, is on international duty but from my conversation yesterday, I think we’ll be OK.

“I’m not Cooky so I don’t know what they would do but I’d imagine if they did take in back, they’d stick him straight in because they only have a young lad on the bench at the moment in (Alex) Bass.

“I didn’t speak to Cooky yesterday but I spoke to my mate who works for him there and the situation has changed with Fulton going away on international duty, but that’s only from the conversation I had with him.

“I haven’t spoken to Paul Cook or (Portsmouth chief executive) Mark Catlin about exactly what is happening, we would just say we would speak after the weekend and see if anything has changed and we’ll go from there.

“Next Thursday is the 24th and what we have on the 24th is what we have for the rest of the season. If Jones is here for one more game and then we have to go and get someone else to compete with Callum (Preston) for the next nine games then I’m comfortable with that. I’m comfortable with whatever happens.

“We are lucky to have Paul Jones here at the moment. If not then we’ll deal with whatever comes our way.”

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