As Portsmouth prepare to enter the season as one of the favourites for promotion, some final fine-tuning of the squad is needed to ensure that they remain so come the end of May.

Crucially, an attacking midfielder is required to increase the threat up front and relieve some of the goalscoring burden from Brett Pitman. For this, Richie Towell fits the bill perfectly.

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Towell impressed while on loan at Rotherham last season as he helped guide the Millers to promotion at the first time of asking. However, he appears to have no future at his parent club, Brighton, and another loan appears to be on the cards.

Part of his appeal is the five goals he scored last season. From a Pompey perspective, only forwards Brett Pitman (18) and Oliver Hawkins (7) scored more. It backed up his impressive goalscoring record for Dundalk in the League of Ireland, where he had scored 43 goals in his 96 appearances.

If a serious promotion challenge is to be launched, the reliance on Pitman has to go. No side in any of the top four divisions relied on a single player for goals as much as Portsmouth relied on Pitman. Most of the burden must fall on the other strikers, but a side that contains goal threats in midfield is markedly more challenging to defend against than one without. For Portsmouth last season, it was the difference between reaching the play-offs and not. Signing Towell would be a significant step towards avoiding the same fate this season.