Portsmouth boss on the January recruit exceeding expectations - and why he's no longer in the squad

Yet the Blues head coach believes the highly-regarded Australian teenager may have to wait before being handed more first-team involvement.

The former Brisbane Roar striker was last month recruited by the Blues as a long-term investment rather than a ‘short-term’ fix.

Nonetheless, Waddingham enjoyed a goal-scoring entrance into the Championship, when he registered on his debut at West Brown after appearing as a second-half substitute.

Despite one more outing off the bench since, the Australian has now been omitted from Pompey’s last two squads for selection reasons.

And despite making an ‘instant impact’, Mousinho has explained his reasoning.

He told The News: ‘Tom is fine, it’s just down to selection.

‘We obviously have the new players - with Kaide and Adil coming into the club - and they have given us other attacking options, so it has been a case of looking across the board and thinking who is needed on the bench.

‘Tom’s been really unlucky, he has done absolutely nothing wrong, there is no issue whatsoever. This is a couple of weeks into his Pompey career, we probably didn’t anticipate him playing, scoring and being in the squad as quickly as he was.

‘There is no expectation of Tom whatsoever, he just needs to settle in and do as best as he can.

‘I don’t know whether he is ready to start games, but he’s come in and had a much bigger impact than we possibly thought.

‘However, he’s certainly ready in terms of fitness and being at it in training every day, so if we need him, we won’t have any hesitation in throwing him in.

‘He’s made an instant impact - he obviously scored on his debut at West Brom - and has looked really lively. We haven’t had a huge amount of time to look at him properly, last week was our first full training week.

‘I’ve been really impressed with Tom, impressed with him physically, he’s a decent footballer as well. The fact he has already settled in and got that goal gives us a nice boost.’

The return to fitness of Brighton’s Mark O’Mahony and loan signings of Kaide Gordon and Adil Aouchiche has undoubtedly extended Pompey’s attacking options.

All three were on the bench in the midweek victory over Cardiff, albeit with O’Mahony the only one of the trio not to be used.

And the indications are Waddingham could again be left out of the 20-man squad for Saturday’s trip to Oxford United (12.30pm).

Mousinho added: ‘I don’t think anyone is expecting anything of Tom, so it’s absolutely fine.

‘We've got centre-forwards in the building, we’ve got Colby, Kas, Mark and Christian - and Tom comes in and complements them all well.

‘If he hadn’t been in any squads, no-one would have batted an eyelid. Obviously he’s now been left out of two, but that’s no issue for Tom. He’s not a short-term one.’