Aaron Morris gave Gillingham an injury scare ahead of the new season by hobbling off in a goalless draw with Portsmouth on Saturday.

Those who read anything into pre-season wouldn't have enjoyed a pretty tame first half in which virtually nothing happened.

There was bad news for Gills inside five minutes when holding midfielder Morris was injured in a challenge and had to go off, replaced by Jake Hessenthaler.

Having seen that happen, it was almost as though nobody else wanted to risk injury so close to next weekend's league opener.

Bradley Dack curled an effort wide after cutting inside from Luke Norris' pass after 10 minutes but bar a couple of wayward efforts from Hessenthaler and Brennan Dickenson, that was about it from Gills.

The bright spark of the first half was full-back Ryan Jackson who got the crowd going with a couple of determined runs down the right.

Portsmouth edged the half in terms of football and went close to opening the scoring on 27 minutes when right-back Ben Davies saw a 20-yard free-kick hit the bar.

Former Gills loanee Josh Wright, who's back training with the club, was introduced as part of a triple change at the break.

A livelier start to the second half saw Adedeji Oshilaja throw himself in the way of Gary Roberts' strike for Pompey, with Emmanuel Osadebe denied by Paul Jones at the other end seconds later.

Oshilaja then powered over a header from a corner as Gills missed a decent chance to open the scoring. But the pre-season feel soon returned.

Gillingham: G Morris (Nelson 46mins), Jackson, Garmston, Egan (Ehmer 46mins), A Morris (Hessenthaler 4mins), Donnelly (Williamson 68mins), Osadebe, Norris, Dack (McGlashan 76mins), Dickenson (Wright 46mins), Oshilaja. Subs not used: Davies.