Pompey boss hails 'ideal' debut for on-loan Luton keeper Macey after starring role in Exeter victory

Luton keeper Matt Macey made an ‘ideal debut’ for Portsmouth in their League One 2-0 victory over Exeter City at Fratton Park on Saturday.

The 28-year-old, who had only headed to Pompey on Friday night in a deal until the end of the season, was thrust straight in against the Grecians, called into action early on, making a brilliant full length save from ex-Luton attacker Sam Nombe’s curler.

He also palmed Josh Key’s shot over the bar, before in the second period, was off his line quickly to prevent Jevani Brown opening the scoring.

Portsmouth went on to take the lead with Marlon Pack’s stunning volley on 57 minutes, before ex-Town midfielder Joe Morrell bagged his first goal for the club, thanks to an awful error from visiting keeper Jamal Blackman.

Speaking to the Portsmouth Evening News, new boss John Mousinho said: “It was probably an ideal debut, obviously from the standpoint of the clean sheet.

“It was excellent for him to come in and get that.

“He settled really well into the game and made a brilliant save in the first five minutes.

"That helped, before he made another really good save in the first half.

“They were probably the only two bits of work he really had in the first half, but he was alert, he was on his toes, he was ready to come and sniff out the danger when Brown was breaking at the beginning of the second half.

“That was really important because going 1-0 down at that stage changes the game.

“But that’s why we brought Matt in.

"We know he’s good, we know what he’s capable of and hopefully the lads will take a huge amount of confidence knowing what they’ve got behind them in Matt.”

Mousinho had only just taken over himself on Friday morning, so explained how the Macey deal was done so quickly, following the decision to recall West Bromwich Albion keeper Josh Griffiths, he added: “With Josh going there were some options on the table and Matt was our number-one choice.

“That was all run by me when we (Pompey) got permission to speak to Oxford.

“Then we started to run by something that was live in terms of timing and we needed to get something sorted quickly.

“Matt was a goalkeeper that I really liked and had watched previously and so it was a fairly easy decision.”

Reacting to his performance on Twitter, @tazthebaffled wrote: “Oh it feels nice to have a keeper with hands again.”

@OP_SamuelCC: “Sign permanently please.”

@SammyGee74: “What a save that was."

@Honourable_HB: “Match winning performance on debut.

"Great stuff. Keep it up #PuP.”