Portsmouth boss talks injury crisis ahead of Sheffield Wednesday, journeyman in line for rare start.
Portsmouth are facing an injury crisis in a particular position ahead of the visit from Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night.
Sheffield Wednesday make the long-haul trip to Fratton Park on Friday evening. But despite the 450-mile round trip, Sheffield Wednesday fans have sold out the game.
Aa things stand, Pompey sit in last place of the Championship table having claimed just one win upon their return to the second tier ahead of this season.
Danny Rohl’s Owls side sit in 18th following their 0-0 draw against Swansea City in midweek, in what was a frustrating game for the watching fans.
Sheffield Wednesday didn’t record a single shot on target during the game at Hillsborough, also boasting the minority of possession on the night as well.
Last time Sheffield Wednesday played Portsmouth was during the promotion-winning 2022/23 season in League One, with the Owls winning 1-0 at Fratton Park courtesy of a Josh Windass goal.
Portsmouth manager discusses goalkeeper crisis ahead of Sheffield Wednesday
John Mousinho’s Pompey have been without no.1 Will Norris for the last three games as the 31-year-old nurses a knee injury.
Nicolas Schmid stepped in and has started the three games since. But he was then forced off early during Portsmouth’s last outing at Cardiff City with what appeared to be a head injury.
It meant that third-choice goalkeeper, Football League journeyman Jordan Archer, came off the bench and is now in contention to start against Sheffield Wednesday.
It would be the former Millwall man’s first league start since the 2020/21 season when he was playing at Middlesbrough.
Mousinho told The Portsmouth News: “I thought Jordan was probably our best performer on the night at Cardiff.
“There’s definite faith in Jordan. There’s no point in bringing a player to the football club who has that level of experience and the level of games in the Championship, if we don’t have faith in him.
“If we didn’t have faith in Jordan we would’ve brought someone else in or done something different. That’s the reason we brought him in and he played at Cardiff.”
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Jon Hobley | MI News)
Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Jordan Archer stats for Portsmouth vs Cardiff City
Portsmouth were already two goals down at Cardiff City by the time Archer came on with an hour left to play.
He went on to make a staggering eight saves, preventing 1.81 goals per Sofascore, also recording 31 touches of the ball with 13 passes completed on the night.
Best known for his four-year stint at Millwall between 2015 and 2019, where he made 166 appearances, Archer has played for all of Wycombe Wanderers, Northampton Town, Oxford United, Motherwell, Middlesbrough, QPR, and Port Vale.
He has 75 Championship appearances to his name and 25 clean sheets in that time, with 84 clean sheets in 259 career appearances.
