Portsmouth's shock transfer window signing: John Mousinho on why he's needed - and their plans for him

Nonetheless, John Mousinho is adamant Ben Killip is an important Fratton Park addition - and laid out the Blues’ plans for the goalkeeper they bought from Barnsley.

Adil Aouchiche and Kaide Gordon both came off the bench during Saturday’s agonising 2-1 defeat at high-flying Sheffield United for their Pompey bows.

Fellow January window recruits Rob Atkinson, Isaac Hayden, Thomas Waddingham, Hayden Matthews and Cohen Bramall had previously made their maiden appearances for the club.

However, Jordan Archer was preferred as Nicolas Schmid’s back-up at Bramall Lane, leaving deadline day arrival Killip out of the match-day squad.

Regardless, Mousinho believes the 29-year-old is a valuable signing.

He told The News: ‘I don’t know whether Ben will be the new number two, we will make a decision, but certainly that’s Jordan’s spot, that’s where he has been.

‘He has done absolutely nothing to tell me that he’s not good enough to actually come in and play games. Against Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday, I thought he did really well.

‘Without contradicting myself - because we let Will go as Nico is the number one at the moment - but Ben is challenging for the number one spot at all times.

‘It’s slightly different in that goalkeeping department, we are pretty clear about saying we have a number one we’re really happy with and there’s no intention of us changing that.

‘However, there are always injuries, always drops in form, and we have to be wary of that, so Ben is coming in, first and foremost, to challenge for that spot, but in the short-term there is that challenge just to strengthen the goalkeeping department and the number two spot.

‘Jordan has been a fantastic number two and done really well, but we want to have strength in depth.

‘All of a sudden, if we pick up an injury in the goalkeeping department, we don't want to have to unfairly thrust anything on Toby (Steward). Not that he’s not ready, by the way.

‘An injury, a couple of illnesses, and Toby has to make his Pompey debut in a massive six pointer. We didn’t think that was necessarily fair. We also want the option to possibly loan Tobe out, although there are no immediate plans to do that.

‘All of that came into our thinking. We wanted three goalkeepers from the start of the season, hence we brought Jordan in. We lost one of them and still feel there’s a bit of development in Toby, so it was right to bring in a third.’

Killip had made 17 successive appearances for Barnsley in the build up to his Fratton Park switch.

He finally lost his place to Aston Villa loanee Joe Gauci at the start of this month, which preceded the former Hartlepool man’s move to the south coast until the end of the season for an undisclosed fee.

Overall this campaign, Killip featured 21 times for Barnsley - and 36 matches in total after arriving at Oakwell in the summer of 2023 from Hartlepool.

Mousinho added: ‘We want a strong goalkeeping department, we will be flexible in terms of where we are and what that looks like in the short-term, medium and long-term because we just want the best possible players competing.

‘I will take a view on all of those sorts of things, including whoever starts any game, on a week-to-week basis.’