Defender makes his comeback in friendly against Portsmouth
Joe McNerney made his long-awaited return to action on Monday as Reds lost 3-2 to a Portsmouth XI at their training ground.
Joe, who joined the club last summer from Woking, hasn’t figured since the end of August because of a knee problem which eventually required surgery.
He has been on the comeback trail in recent weeks, regularly taking part in the matchday warm-up as well as working hard in the gym and on the training ground.
Joe played for the entire 90 minutes and manager Mark Yates was delighted to see him back.
“The game was mainly arranged to get Joe minutes under his belt and he came through fine,” said the boss. “It was a good exercise with the players not
involved or on the bench playing.
“We’ve got a busy end to the season, including two games over Easter, and we will need everyone to be fit and raring to go. Hopefully we will see Joe again
before the end of the season – this was another step forward in his recovery process.”
Roarie Deacon put Reds in front when his shot crept in after 34 minutes but a strong Pompey team replied through Kal Naismith, Michael Smith and Adam May
before Lee Barnard pulled one back in the second half.
: Preston, Trialist, McNerney, Yorwerth, Walton (Trialist 67), Bawling, Young, Tomlin, Fenelon (Trialist 67), Deacon, BarnardCrawley
