‘Outstanding name on list’: How Portsmouth got lucky to land former Wolves, Sheffield United and Wigan Athletic man at crucial moment after Ipswich exit

John Mousinho feels fortune worked in Pompey’s favour to allow them to sign a player of Lee Evans’ calibre.

And Blues boss told how the opportunity to add deep-lying midfield nous to a department short on experience prompted the move for the former Ipswich man.

Mousinho believes his club are getting the ‘outstanding’ free agent available in midfield, as they moved to bring in the 29-year-old last week after departing Portman Road at the end of February.

The head coach admitted there was no chance Pompey would have ordinarily been able to land Evans, if he hadn’t been on the road to recovery from a knee injury.

Tom Lowery’s hamstring issue sees him join the likes of Joe Morrell, Alex Robertson, Terry Devlin and Tino Anjorin on a lengthy list of injured midfielders.

The plan is for the former Wolves, Wigan and Sheffield United man to be available for selection for the final ‘seven or eight games’ of the season, after undergoing knee surgery at the start of October.

Mousinho has no doubt Pompey have landed a standout option from what was available, on a deal until the summer.

He said: ‘As soon as Tom went down with an injury we looked at alternatives for what we could do in terms of a holding midfielder.

‘Sometimes you get lucky, and in this instance I feel we’ve got lucky in the free agent market.

‘The outstanding name on the list was Lee Evans, he brings a huge amount of experience and we knew we’d probably not be able to get him if he was fully fit.

‘We’ve got that to contend with, but we feel he has a big part to play in the rest of the season when we get him to speed.

‘He’s a player which a huge amount of Championship experience and was promoted out of this league last year in, certainly in my opinion, one of the most outstanding sides League One has ever seen.

‘We’re really pleased to have him through the door.’

Evans is now set to crucially bolster an area of the pitch which was looking threadbare in terms of both bodies and game time in that department.

Myles Peart-Harris took on the role against Oxford, but Mousinho explained even January recruit Owen Moxon hasn’t played a huge amount as a six.

Mousinho added: ‘We looked at it after the Tom Lowery injury and we had the two recognised sixes in Marlon and Owen.

‘To be fair to Owen, he hasn’t played too much in that position in his career let alone for us in the system we play - and I’ve spoken about it’s a big part for him to learn and play.

‘We see Myles as being able to play there, but it’s not his primary position. o we thought it was a good option for us to do that and have not just cover there, but a really excellent player in Lee.'