Danny Cowley revealed the hardships his Portsmouth team had faced in the build-up to the new season, which made their first-day 1-0 win at Fleetwood all the sweeter.

Pompey took home the spoils thanks to Lee Brown’s second-half strike, after which manager Cowley spoke about the troubles on and off the pitch that had blighted their preparation.

“It’s been a very challenging week,” he said. “Every week seems to be a challenging one at Portsmouth at the minute, but it has been a tough week.

“We’ve had quite a lot of adversity, young Ronan (Curtis)’s partner Maddie had a miscarriage unfortunately in the middle of this week. That is just the saddest news and it puts everything in perspective.

“There are a lot of people who wouldn’t have been able to if they were in the position he’s been in. So that says a lot about him that he was willing to do that for the team, the club and the group. We send our love to Maddie and both their families.”

Cowley also pointed to late injuries and an arduous journey north ahead of the game which contributed to a disjointed performance, but insisted he was proud of the response from his players.

“We had a nine-hour journey and didn’t arrive until nine last night,” he added. “And we lost Shaun Williams with a stiff back in the warm-up, so we only had two midfielders at the club.

“We had to hit the gamble button, we primed Connor Ogilvie, he’s never played in central midfield before in his career, I just said to him ‘think of a mixture of Kante and Pirlo and be the ginger version of that’. And I thought he was, he was great.

“So to win the game with all that going on in the background is really pleasing. I’m proud of the players because they could have had a lot of excuses but they chose not to take them.”

His opposite number, Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson, was disappointed by the result but refused to get too downbeat, believing that there were enough signs to be positive about their chances this term.

“I’m definitely disappointed,” he said. “In the first game of the season you want your team to play well, to be on the front foot and put on a good show and win the match.

“We did a lot of those things but we didn’t win the match, that’s the biggest disappointment. We came in at half-time and could have been two or three goals up, I thought we played with an energy about us, some good play and worked their goalkeeper but we weren’t ruthless enough.

“You have to take those chances when you’re on top because it can come back to bite you, and that’s how it panned out, unfortunately.

“In the first half our front players were exceptional, getting into pockets and linking up. They showed what good footballers they are and what they can do for this football club, I think they’ll all be disappointed not to get on the scoresheet because their performances warranted that.

“We dominated the first half, to the point they matched us up in the second half. So we’re all disappointed but we’ll play worse than that and win games this season.”