The 17-year-old from Tattyreagh making a surprise Portsmouth pre-season impact
The left winger joined from Northern Ireland club Crusaders in September 2025
A 17-year-old from Tattyreagh is the surprise fresh face catching the eye during Pompey’s pre-season schedule.
Indeed, Brandon Downey wasn’t even born when Sol went up to lift the FA Cup, yet the highly-promising Academy winger has totalled a goal and an assist during three Blues friendly outings last week.
Certainly John Mousinho has been impressed with the Northern Ireland Under-19 international, who arrived at Fratton Park in September 2025.
Recruited from NIFL Premiership side Crusaders for an undisclosed fee, Downey is currently a second-year scholar who has, on occasions, trained with Pompey’s first-team.
Having assisted Thomas Waddingham’s Woking winner, he then grabbed the leveller at Bristol Rovers in Saturday’s 1-1 draw.
And Mousinho has spoken of a ‘great moment’ for the talented left winger from County Tyrone.
‘A good physique for a left winger and a pretty good technique’
Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Brandon getting a goal at the age of 17 was a nice moment for him.
‘I thought he did very well on Tuesday night when he came on against Woking. The game on Wednesday (Aldershot) was a tougher test with fewer senior pros around, but Brandon played out of position against Bristol Rovers to get his goal.
‘In fairness, considering the changes we made on 62 minutes with the amount of youth we had on the pitch, I was pretty impressed with how the lads finished the game on Saturday. Brandon was one of those players.
‘It was a great moment for him to get the goal and hopefully he kicks on and gets many more. He’s a second-year scholar, sometimes he trains with the first-team, but, at the minute, he is with the Academy.
‘He’s usually a left winger, has a good physique for a left winger, and a pretty good technique. He is still developing in terms of lots of parts of his game, such as game understanding, how he can beat a man and the physical development.
‘But, in terms of the profile of the winger, it suits us.’
Assisted Thomas Waddingham’s goal at Woking
With Pompey fielding a different side for each half in the opening pre-season friendly at Woking, Downey was introduced at half-time.
Within 10 minutes, he had provided the pass which Waddingham converted to secure a 2-1 victory over Jermain Defoe’s National League side.
The following evening at Aldershot, he was among five teenagers who started against the non-leaguers, with the Blues trailing 2-0 at the break before 11 changes were made.
Mousinho’s men then travelled to Bristol Rovers on Saturday, this time making nine substitutions on 62 minutes, with Downey among them.
Just 15 minutes later, when triallist Arvin Appiah’s shot was saved, the Irish youngster followed up to finish into an empty net and grab an equaliser in a 1-1 draw.
‘A proper competitive game of football’
Mousinho added: ‘The result was pretty irrelevant, it was obviously nice to get back into the game with the equaliser, particularly with the side we had at the back end in terms of some of the young players playing.
‘The performance was what we were looking for, we got it in patches, although there were some really disappointing bits. It was a good test, actually.
‘What we didn’t deal with particularly well - and that is where Bristol Rovers’ goal came from - was a couple of the longer balls. They are going to be a very, very competitive side this year.
‘It was a different test to what we’ve had over the last couple of weeks and forced us into playing a proper competitive game of football.’