JOSH Thompson has insisted that there will be no room for sentiment, when his current club Colchester United take on his former club Portsmouth at Fratton Park this Saturday.

U’s new skipper Thompson hobbled off at half-time, during last weekend’s vital 2-0 home win over Walsall, and did not appear for the second period.

However, manager Joe Dunne is confident that Thompson will be fit to feature at Portsmouth, and the player himself is looking forward to hopefully heaping more woe on his troubled old employers.

“I was at Portsmouth for a few months, but I’ve been at Colchester for a few months now,” explained Thompson.

“I enjoyed it at Portsmouth, but in truth there’s only one team that I want to stay up this season – and that’s Colchester!

“There won’t be any sentiment attached to this game, for me.

“If Walsall can do it, by going on a good run after beating us (last December), then I see no reason why we can’t do the same now.”

Thompson has worn the skipper’s arm-band for the last two matches, a 2-1 home defeat to Scunthorpe and Saturday’s 2-0 win over Walsall.

He was replaced by fellow centre-half Tom Eastman at half-time against the Saddlers, after which Jabo Ibehre and Freddie Sears both struck with goals in the last 11 minutes of the game to end a dismal run of nine straight defeats.

Second-half centre-backs Eastman and Magnus Okuonghae played their part in an important clean-sheet – the U’s first since a 2-0 home win over Bury exactly 70 days earlier – but Thompson is hoping to return at Fratton Park.

U’s boss Dunne, who was on the south coast on Tuesday night to watch Portsmouth 2-0 home defeat to Notts County, is expecting Thompson to be passed fit.

“Josh went over on his ankle, so we didn’t want to risk him in the second half,” explained Dunne.

“But he is getting better and he should be back in training on Thursday, so I would expect him to be fine for the weekend.”