“Absolutely incredible” – Big claim made about Portsmouth FC’s Josh Murphy after Oxford United switch.

This post is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which features personal comments from FLW Fan Pundits on breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings, and more.

Every team has a player who outperforms expectations after joining a club, or who appears to thrive in a higher league after being promoted despite misgivings about their ability to make the jump.

Portsmouth will have been in the same boat last summer, having signed a lot of players to help them return to the Championship after winning League One the previous season. Some players swim, others sink. However, John Mousinho’s team has shown their early-season sceptics wrong with a string of impressive performances of late, and their relegation fears have lessened as they continue to pick up points on a more consistent basis. But who has been a surprise package for the Fratton Park team? We asked Miltos Ioannidis, a Pompey fan analyst for Football League World, who outperformed his expectations when the season began.

Josh Murphy praised for Portsmouth form after Oxford United exit

Josh Murphy was one of the players who joined the football club before the season began, having recently helped Oxford United achieve the second division. The winger scored both goals in the League One play-off final to help the U’s win promotion last May, but his contract expired a few weeks later, and he chose to transfer to the south coast rather than stay at the Kassam Stadium. Murphy, who had question marks surrounding him after a shaky start to his career, has come into his own over the last 18 months, with Pompey now reaping the benefits of his abilities on a consistent basis.

With 15 goals already this season, the 30-year-old has demonstrated that last year was not a fluke, and is having the most prolific season of his career, justifying Pompey’s move for him last year. After struggling in the Championship early in his career, a more mature Murphy is thriving in the EFL’s top tier, leaving Ioannidis pleasantly delighted by what he has witnessed this season. When asked about his club’s unexpected star, the Pompey supporter replied: “I am going to say Josh Murphy, and I am going to expound on that because it is possibly someone you would not expect somebody to say.

“When we signed Josh Murphy as a free agent in the summer, we knew we were getting a tremendously talented player who had been very good for Oxford, particularly in the last six months to a year. “But we were signing a guy who had not performed very well at Championship level in the past, with a few injury issues here and there.

“When we first signed Josh Murphy, I was obviously overjoyed because it demonstrated the pull we had as a club and how John Mousinho persuaded him to join us rather than extend his contract at Oxford, for example.” “But one part of me was still sceptical as to whether he would be exactly what we need, in terms of being a player that is Championship proven and Championship ready, but he has turned every doubt I may have had down.”

Josh Murphy is proving Championship class at Portsmouth

Murphy began his career at Norwich City and had many loan spells at Championship clubs, including Wigan Athletic and MK Dons, before returning to Carrow Road and scoring 19 goals in two seasons. A major move to then-Premier League side Cardiff City followed, but after a disastrous four years in the Welsh capital, where he seldom earned a chance, he was left to rebuild his career at the Kassam Stadium after a summer move in 2022. The early symptoms appeared to suggest a player completely without confidence, but Murphy has now found his love for the game and affection for tearing opposition defenders apart on a regular basis, with Pompey now feeling the full effects of that after his recent resurgence.