Pompey boss: Doyle's four players in one

But Paul Cook is convinced new-boy Eoin Doyle is the equivalent of up to four centre-forward recruits.

The Preston striker has arrived on the south coast on loan for the remainder of the season and will immediately lead Pompey’s attack at Wycombe.

The 28-year-old previously served under Cook at Sligo and Chesterfield, proving prolific when spearheading the manager’s favoured 4-2-3-1 formation.

At Championship level, Doyle struggled to produce the goals for both Cardiff and Preston.

But with a Spireites record of 38 goals in 84 matches, he has an outstanding pedigree in League One and League Two.

And Cook is convinced the in-demand Irishman’s talents can add another dimension to his promotion-chasing side.

He said: ‘We expect other players within the club to come alive now.

‘We don’t think we have made one signing – we think we have made two, three or four.

‘Eoin will play our system very well, he is very comfortable with it and is an extremely unselfish lad who works hard. He’s such a good team player.

‘He will be a popular player, he’s a lovely lad who doesn’t have the ego that some players in the game can have about them.

‘I’ve always had confidence in Eoin to score goals because of his movement.

‘He’s a little bit of all our strikers in one, if you like. That is the biggest compliment you can pay him, he’s got a bit of everything.

‘Why does he keep joining me at clubs? It’s because I keep giving him pay rises!

‘He’s a Championship player, he scored for us in Chesterfield in League One playing up front on his own and we’re looking at him to do well here.’

Doyle was a key member of Chesterfield’s 2013-14 side who won the League Two title and the reached the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final.

He netted 13 times in 51 appearances, although 20 of those outings arrived from the bench.

The following League One season he yielded 25 goals in 33 matches.

Cook added: ‘The only reason Eoin scored 13 in that first year was because he and Marc Richards shared the games playing up front on their own.

‘We had Doyle and Richards and we loved them both. They basically took turns, one would play for 60 minutes then the other would play the next.

‘We were dead happy with them both, both great lads.

‘The second year in League One we just played with Eoin, Richards had gone.

‘The Chesterfield fans were begging me to go to 4-4-2, the normal stuff about how the formation doesn’t work.

‘We had Armand Gnanduillet as well so I sent him out on loan to Tranmere and said “we can’t change the system now – we have no players!”

‘We came off on the Saturday and Gnanduillet had scored twice for Tranmere in his second game.

‘The first question was “what do you think of Gnanduillet?” I said “I knew he would score goals wherever he went”.

‘But Doyle scored 25 goals and was sold in the February to Cardiff.’