Article 1 of 2 : Hong Kong

The Pompey squad flies out to Hong Kong today in preparation for the Barclays Asia Trophy - which begins on Tuesday as Pompey kick off against a team that will be a force to be reckoned with this season. Not Liverpool, but Fulham - at least according to Diomansy Kamara.

As the pace of pre-season is moved forward a little more, we face Fulham at 11am UK time on Tuesday, with a match against either Liverpool or South China on Friday - 11am in the 3rd/4th play-off if we lose to Fulham or 1.15pm in the Final should we win - and I almost fully expect us to beat Fulham.

With a virtually fully fit squad heading off to Asia this should give us a little more indication of what we can expect this season as the standard of fitness should be improving and opposition is of a higher level, not being disrespectful to the challengers we have had so far during pre-season.

Heat and humidity will have an impact on the tournament, but at the same time should help with getting our fitness levels closer to the level we need.

One man almost certain to make his Pompey debut is the potential club record signing, depending on various extra costs that might be paid, is John Utaka - who had the final stamps made on his work permit last Friday.

When all is said and done this is still only pre-season, but this is the tournament that Pompey opted for ahead of the Intertoto Cup, which could have seen us into the UEFA Cup this season, so I hope we can do ourselves justice - and I am sure we will.

A good showing and ideally the winning of the trophy will raise our profile even more and help get us well into the Asian market, which as others know, including Liverpool, can be very profitable.

(VitalFootball)