Martin Cranie will have to survive a tough examination of his character to make the grade at Portsmouth.

That's the view of the last player to quit Saints for Pompey prior to Cranie's £400,000 defection to Fratton Park last week.

The Yeovil-born defender became the first player since left-back Scott Hiley over seven years ago to move directly from Saints to Portsmouth.

And Cranie's switch brought the memories of his own move in December 1999 flooding back for Hiley.

Hiley remembered the troubled started to his Fratton Park career he endured, which saw him verbally abused, booed and even spat at by Pompey fans just for his Saints connections.

And the 38 year-old warned: "He (Cranie) is young and it will be tough for him at the beginning.

"But if he is a strong character, plays to the best of his abilities and gives 110 per cent they will accept him as a Portsmouth player - because that's all they want."

When he signed for Portsmouth, Hiley wasn't helped by the fact the man who signed him, the late Alan Ball, was sacked by chairman Milan Mandaric just six days later.

The new incumbent of the Fratton Park hotseat, Tony Pulis, never took to Hiley.

And though he went onto captain Pompey and win the player of the season award in his first full season, Hiley has never forgotten how life begun for him at Portsmouth.

"I had a tough start," he remembered. "Because you're a Saints player the Portsmouth fans will hate you.

"I made my debut up at Sunderland. We only had a few fans there so it wasn't too bad but I was still getting grief and was wondering what had I got myself in for.

"It's hard enough playing football in front of one set of fans giving you grief, but to get it from both ... you have to be mentally tough and believe in your own ability.

"When we played at home, every time I touched the ball I got booed by my own fans.

"Another time I remember playing away at Aldershot. About 20 minutes from the end, a little section of Pompey fans gave me some grief and (team-mate) Shaun Derry asked me whether I had played for Aldershot before and I said no, that's our fans booing me because I came from Saints'."

Hiley was 11 years older - 31 - than Cranie is when he made his move to Fratton Park.

Hiley added: "If he is not going to get regular first team football he needs to go and find football.

"You have to look after your family and sometimes you have to be that cold and calculated about it.

"You earn money by playing football and you have to be in the public eye showing you're doing your best to do that. If him moving to Portsmouth is the best move for him, you can't let it stop you because you have to earn a living.

"Maybe he hasn't got a family yet but in the future he will have and it's down to him to put food on the table."