Blackburn's Hayden Carter: Why I traded Championship football playing against West Brom and Nottingham Forest to join Portsmouth

The central defender has this season made nine league appearances for Blackburn, against the likes of Nottingham Forest, West Brom, Fulham and Middlesbrough.

Yet he has elected to drop into League One with Pompey for the remainder of the campaign.

Danny Cowley has spoken of his delight at landing the 22-year-old on loan to finally end his hunt for another central defender.

And Carter, who made 24 appearances at Burton during a similar loan spell last season, is relishing his Blues opportunity.

He told The News: ‘This is a huge club and I need to test myself somewhere where there’s a lot of pressure.

‘When I spoke to the gaffer, he persuaded me to come down and hopefully it’s going to be the right choice.

‘I wasn't playing at Blackburn, the team had been flying as of late and kept five clean sheets in six Championship games, so it’s hard for anyone to break into that starting XI.

‘For my development and my career I feel it’s best I come out and hopefully play a lot of games.

‘It was a joint decision, the club also feel it’s better for my development to get out, play games – and in a stadium and an atmosphere like this. I agreed with it.

‘Burton benefited me a lot, it was my first real taste of first-team football and I played quite a few games at League One level.

‘I’ve definitely improved from that, that’s how you get your experience to play at the higher levels.

‘You need to test yourself against more physical strikers than you would in Academy football and under-23s.’

Carter was an unused substitute in Pompey’s 2-1 defeat to MK Dons this afternoon.

His only other encounter with Fratton Park was turning out for Burton in a 2-1 victory over Cowley’s men in April 2021.

On that occasion supporters weren’t allowed into the ground – on Saturday there were 14,958.

Carter added: ‘I played here last season in April.

‘Sadly there were no fans, so today was the first time I really got the atmosphere here and it was brilliant.

‘They were loud from start to finish, really getting behind the lads.

‘It didn’t go the way any of us wanted it to, but I can’t wait to play in front of them.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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