MANAGER Eddie Howe says tonight’s friendly at Portsmouth will represent one of his personal highlights from Cherries’ pre-season campaign.

Cherries, beaten 1-0 by Southampton on Friday, continue their preparations with a trip to Fratton Park where they will face Howe’s former club (7.45pm kick-off).

Boss Howe joined Pompey from Cherries in 2002, only to sustain a serious knee injury in his second game for the Hampshire outfit.

Howe told the Daily Echo: “It is a great club with great fans. They supported the club through the bad times and, fingers crossed, it is now on the way back up.

"We’ve got some friends there in Wes Fogden and Danny Hollands and I know Andy Awford very well. We wish them nothing but success for next season.

“I think it will be a really good game and it will be a tough one. It will be a great experience for some of our younger lads to go there with their crowd.

"I am really looking forward to it and, for me, it will be one of the highlights of the pre-season campaign.”

Howe, who is expected to field all his fit first-team players with some getting more game time than others, added: “We will have a look at it and try to give more minutes to some of the players who didn’t play as long against Southampton.

“Tommy Elphick came through 90 minutes which was really good to see and a couple of others played past the 80-minute mark.

"It was good to get some game time into a lot of the guys and we will probably look to step up some of the others as well.”