Portsmouth striker hunt declared over - with three the magic number for John Mousinho
Colby Bishop’s striker rivals - Jacob Brown, Mackenzie Kirk and Thomas Waddingham - totalled two goals in 2025-26
John Mousinho has declared Pompey’s striker transfer business over after landing Marko Milovanovic.
With Mousinho’s favoured playing system utilising a lone striker in the starting XI, he believes three represents the maximum number required in his squad.
There have, of course, been exceptions, namely the 2024-25 season to cope with Bishop’s absence following heart surgery during the opening four months, before his triumphant return to action.
Yet Pompey’s head coach is satisfied the full quota of centre-forwards has now been reached - and he’s relishing the damage Milovanovic, Bishop and Waddingham can wreak.
‘We always want to run with three centre-forwards at least’
Mousinho told The News: ‘Three centre-forwards is the maximum we want - and we have that now.
‘Most of the time we would look to have two players in every position, although that centre-forward one is three.
‘We like a certain profile of centre-forward and that’s what we think we have in all three now in the building. We have seen glimpses of what Wadds can do and we know all about Colby and how brilliant he has been for the football club.
‘We always want to run with three centre-forwards at least - and we’ve always done that. In the League One title-winning season, we had three competitive centre-forwards in Kusini (Yengi), Christian (Saydee) and Colby.
‘In the first season in the Championship we had even more. With Colby’s heart issue, we brought in Mark (O’Mahony), we brought in Elias (Sorensen), and we had Kusini and Christian. We have always wanted to try to compete with three centre-forwards.
‘I guess part of the issue last season was there was never any respite for Colby because of the injuries we picked up.
‘We lost Makenzie (Kirk) for a long period of time, we lost Tom (Waddingham) for a long period of time, we managed to bring Jacob Brown in. Apart from that, Colby didn’t really have any back up.’
Struggled to provide Colby Bishop with competition
Pompey have noticeably struggled to find effective competition for Bishop since their promotion to the Championship.
Kusini Yengi, Elias Sorensen, Christian Saydee and Mark O’Mahony netted seven goals between them in 2024-25, while Bishop netted 11 in 32 appearances to finish as leading scorer for a third-straight campaign.
Last term, Bishop contributed just four times in 43 outings, while Jacob Brown, Mackenzie Kirk and Thomas Waddingham totalled two goals.
In addition, Callum Lang started two matches up front in December 2025, scoring in the 2-1 home win over Blackburn.
In the case of Waddingham, this promises to be an intriguing season. Now apparently free from injury, the Australian has scored two in two friendly appearances so far this summer.
‘We are always mindful of that’
And Mousinho recognises the importance of keeping the 21-year-old fit and available for the campaign ahead.
He added: ‘We would love to hang our hat on Wadds. It’s a big thing for us to make sure we keep him as fit as possible because you can see how useful he can be and how good he is.
‘With his injury record, however, we are always mindful of that.’