Credit: Getty Images / Pompey Supporters' Trust on YouTube

Dan Godfrey

Sat 19 April 2025 22:00, UK

Portsmouth have had a conveyor belt of goalkeepers this season, with Nicolas Schmid having been the established number one for several months.

The Austrian has excelled with some superb performances when Pompey have been up against it, having usurped Will Norris, who was immense with 19 clean sheets in last year’s promotion season, now at Wycombe Wanderers, looking to achieve the same fate.

Jordan Archer has been a reliable understudy in the times he has featured, while Ben Killip was perhaps bizarrely brought in when he joined from Barnsley as third-choice late in the winter window.

Killip was a regular goalkeeper in League One but made the switch to Fratton Park on a short-term deal.

Portsmouth stopper praised after clean sheet on EFL debut

John Mousinho had a man-management challenge ahead of him when he and Rich Hughes insisted Portsmouth should have three senior goalkeepers in the pecking order.

But this has caused very few problems, at least now Norris has been offered a fond farewell and another chance at promotion to the Championship with Mike Dodds’ Wycombe.

It has proven beneficial for Toby Steward, the 20-year-old stopper who this week joined Crawley Town of League One on a seven-day emergency loan.

Steward has featured on the bench for Pompey this season but not yet made his bow in the senior side, earning experience outside of Fratton Park over the past two years with Wealdstone, Gosport Borough and Tonbridge Angels.

His loan to Crawley has put him on a pedestal, with a fantastic display earning an unlikely clean sheet in a 0-0 stalemate away at big-spending League One champions Birmingham City (18 April).

Portsmouth congratulated young Steward (19 April) on their social media platforms, encouraging many Blues fans to weigh in with their messages of support.

Steward is exciting Pompey prospect for the future

Portsmouth down the years have produced many players who have gone on to enjoy excellent careers, the most recent of whom the likes of Adam Webster, Conor Chaplin and Joel Ward.

However, the lack of a professional development bridge – namely, an under-21 side – to progress players from scholarship graduates to first-team footballers means local talent are often sent elsewhere.

Steward, along with Reuben Swann, who was brought in last summer and immediately sent on loan, are just a select few at Fratton Park who, while on professional contracts, are gaining football experience away from Mousinho’s squad.

Hopes are high for the young stopper to develop into an outstanding goalkeeper, tipped to become Portsmouth’s number one in years to come following his consistency while out on loan.

That crucial EFL exposure – and a clean sheet away at the runaway leaders, to boot – will only serve Steward well ahead of next season.