Pompey weighing up training ground options

But the Blues have not been forced out of their home at Eastleigh.

Administrator Trevor Birch admits the club are now looking at their options over where the first team will base themselves.

Pompey have used Wellington Sports Ground as their training ground since moving there from HMS Collingwood in the summer of 2002.

Southampton’s King Edward VI School own the facility and share use of it along with Pompey.

It is also used to host the club’s Academy, who play their fixtures there.

Training facilities have long been a problem for Pompey.

They were given the green light to build a new base at Lee-on-the-Solent in 2008, after plans to move to a site at Titchfield were turned down.

That never materialised, though, as the club’s financial difficulties developed.

Birch explained the lease at Eastleigh is now weighing heavy on the Blues through their latest problems.

But talk circulating that Pompey had been thrown out is wide of the mark.

Birch admits the club are considering what the best move for them would be.

Finding a suitable venue with the right facilities is proving problematic, though.

A return to HMS Collingwood has been mooted, along with other options in and around Portsmouth.

But, according to Birch, there have been no developments as things stand.

He said: ‘There’s nothing to report at this stage.

‘It’s quite an expensive lease for us (at Eastleigh) but there are no alternatives at the moment.

‘There are a few sites mentioned which have been publicised.

‘One of the issues we have to deal with is facilities, though. They are few and far between, really.’