Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley has told Hampshire Live why the club felt the need to bring in goalkeeper Jake Eastwood on an emergency loan from Sheffield United. 

The 24-year-old shot stopper was announced as a new signing by the Sky Bet League One side just 15 minutes before the club's team news was officially published for their Papa John's Trophy group game against AFC Wimbledon.

Eastwood was thrown straight in at the deep end by Cowley due to the unavailability of Gavin Bazunu and Alex Bass and unfortunately came off on the wrong end of a 5-3 defeat at Plough Lane against a ruthless Wimbledon side.

Now the Pompey boss has explained exactly why the club felt the need to bring in another keeper as he stated the following last night:

"We have to be adaptable and we adapted.

"Young Jake joined us this evening at the hotel and I thought he did okay. It wasn't an easy day for him, we didn't protect him anywhere near as well as we could have done or anywhere near as well as I would expect my teams to protect him.

"It certainly changed the way we like to play because he doesn't know our way and he hasn't done any rehearsal, any practice so we had to be a little bit more risk adverse in our own half."

Eastwood's loan at Fratton Park is only a week long in duration and he is set to return to Bramall Lane once both Bazunu and Bass are back in action on the South Coast.

The keeper has little in the way of experience under his belt at senior level, having only made 32 appearances across his career so far in a first team environment.

The Verdict 

This was quick thinking on Pompey's part and they have done well to bring in a keeper who can fill a gap at short notice.

It was a tough evening for Eastwood last night and he will certainly be hoping to do better if he manages to get any more minutes between now and when he heads back to Sheffield United.

He will feel that this is a good little experience for him and it could well lead to further first team opportunities further down the line.

His situation with the Blades is far from ideal right now and it wouldn't be a shock at all if he was loaned out again on a longer basis.