LIFE AS A Portsmouth player got off to a promising start for Gavin Bazunu as he helped them to overcome Crewe Alexandra yesterday.

Bazunu marked his debut with a clean sheet in the 2-0 victory at Fratton Park, with manager Danny Cowley labelling the Republic of Ireland international a “top, top goalkeeper” afterwards.

The 19-year-old Dubliner is to spend the duration of the 2021-22 season with Portsmouth, having joined the club on loan from Manchester City.

A quad injury delayed his first outing for Pompey, allowing Alex Bass to start in goal for last weekend’s League One opener against Fleetwood Town, as well as Tuesday’s meeting with Millwall in the Carabao Cup.

However, Bazunu was given the nod for the visit of Crewe, as Portsmouth made it back-to-back wins to kick off their bid for promotion to the Championship.

“I’ve said before that I feel we’ve got two of the best young goalkeepers around – certainly in this country,” Cowley said of Bazunu and 23-year-old Bass.

“We’d planned to change in midweek, but Gavin wasn’t quite ready to start after coming back from that quad injury. There’s so much faith in him that he can be a real protagonist in our attacking play, despite wearing the number one.”

Bazunu had few saves to make, but he was involved in the series of passes that created Portsmouth’s second goal, which was scored by Ireland hopeful Marcus Harness.

“It was good wasn’t it? A good goal for us,” added Cowley. “Gavin can play so high out of his goal and that allows us to use him as our pivot and that allows us to get an extra number up the pitch.

“It is very important to us and he is very confident in that moment and we worked that one well.” 

Bazunu, who has won four senior caps since debuting against Luxembourg in March, is likely to be included in Stephen Kenny’s Ireland squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Portugal, Azerbaijan and Serbia.