The man in right place handed unlikely chance for Portsmouth promotion bid role

The transfer news arrived on the day Pompey effectively acknowledged a forthcoming move into the market.

No one was expecting a deal to be confirmed a few hours after John Mousinho’s intimation a central defender would be required in the new year was reported, however.

The need for additional cover there looks a necessity, with any further injuries in that department leaving Mousinho options a little threadbare.

Yet the short-term deal agreed with Josh Martin which crept a little surprisingly up on us all, is one which makes sense for all concerned when placed under the microscope.

Martin has now spent the past six weeks at the club’s Copnor Road training base building his fitness, after his summer release from Norwich.

Premier League and Championship experience had arrived there for the former Arsenal academy talent, after being given his top-flight debut by Daniel Farke in 2020.

A series of loans, most recently including 23 outings with Barnsley last term, preceded his summer exit from Carrow Road.

Martin has quietly gone about his business down at Hilsea, however, with his quality immediately evident to Mousinho.

Was it going to be enough to earn a deal? It didn’t quite look so. The Pompey boss politely indicated a move wasn’t out of the question but nothing appeared remotely close to happening, when the subject repeatedly resurfaced in weekly press briefings.

Tino Anjorin hamstring injury at Chesterfield precipitated a momentum shift on that subject, however, with the Chelsea loanee now out of the equation until the new year.

Ronan Curtis was the name many Pompey fans were thinking of when it came to plugging the gap, but with Martin in the building and ready to go it was the move which made sense.

With the Luton-born man’s personal situation bringing him to the Portsmouth area, a deal for a couple of months suits all parties.

Paddy Lane has led the way among the winger options, but beyond the Northern Ireland man form has fluctuated among Abu Kamara and Gavin Whyte, while Anthony Scully now has Anjorin’s company in the treatment room.

Can Martin come up on the blindside and prove an unlikely cog in Pompey’s promotion drive? It’d be an improbable emergence, but a talent Mousinho believes can bring ‘excitement’ to the table is now in position to stake his claim.

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