Portsmouth on their plans for out-of-favour ex-Huddersfield Town man after securing ‘insurance policy’

Pompey are looking to send out-of-favour Ryan Schofield out on loan.

The Blues have bolstered their goalkeeping department with the arrival of Matt Macey on a deal until the end of the season.

John Mousinho moved for the ex-Blues loanee amid concerns over Schofield, who has struggled since his summer arrival.

Macey will now challenge Will Norris for the number one spot, while Toby Steward is on loan at Gosport and Josh Oluwayemi’s contract has been cancelled by mutual agreement.

As for Schofield, Andy Cullen admitted Rich Hughes is attempting to find another club for him during the January window.

The Blues’ chief executive told The News: ‘We want to be strong in every department and Matt will come in and challenge Will.

‘Will has played every league game so far and we are very conscious of wanting to be really, really strong should anything happen to Will. Now we have Matt.

‘It’s almost like having an insurance policy in place. If anything happens to either keeper, everybody will feel very comfortable about the player coming in.

‘John said Ryan needs some games, so we'll now look to see if we can get a loan for him, getting him the games he needs at the moment as well.

‘It’s really good to bring a player of Matt’s calibre in, we all know him, he was with us last season and did really, really well.

‘I’m delighted to have the capability of Will and the capability of Matt as well, that just shows what we want to do.’

Schofield, who joined in July following his release from Huddersfield, is out of contract in the summer.

The 24-year-old previously represented England internationally at under-18, 19 and 20 levels, while totalled 35 games for the Terriers.

Now Macey, who spent a successful second half of last season at Fratton Park, has replaced him as number two.

Cullen added: ‘Matt can see what we are trying to achieve, he obviously knows a good number of the group from last season as well as Joe Prodomo, so it was a good conversation to have.

‘It makes us stronger, you want to finish the window and look back and not have any regrets.’