John Mousinho has hailed a bright future for Pompey’s ‘massively developing’ 19-year-old.
The Blues fought off Derby, Sunderland, Stoke and Brentford to land the highly-regarded Terry Devlin in a £90,000 deal in June.
The Glentoran midfielder was among 14 summer recruits as Rich Hughes oversaw a squad overhaul, yet has still to start a League One fixture.
Regardless, since appearing as a substitute at Derby for his Football League debut, Devlin has featured in five of their last six league games.
The teenager also came off the bench for Northern Ireland Under-21s in last Thursday’s 1-0 victory at Azerbaijan in the Euro Under-21s qualifiers.
And Mousinho is hugely encouraged by the ongoing development of the talented Irishman.
He told The News: ‘The biggest compliment I can pay Terry is we brought him on as a 19-year-old at Derby for his league debut when he needed a goal, then played him at Barnsley and Wigan.
‘These are pressurised environments where the home teams are used to winning games, but we needed somebody we could rely on – and that’s a reflection of how well Terry has done.
‘At Barnsley, they were getting the better of us down their left-hand side in the second half. We had two players there with Joe Rafferty returning from a three-game suspension and Paddy Lane returning from a long-term injury and playing back-to-back games.
‘Paddy was exhausted after 78 minutes, so we needed Terry to come in and do a job on their most threatening side – and I thought he was excellent.
‘He provided us with a massive lift in energy, got around the pitch really well and made a huge contribution. We’ve also had no problem getting him involved in other league games since.
‘Terry is massively developing. When he first came into the building, he was a young pro, full of enthusiasm who hadn’t quite had the minutes training at this level with the intensity required and hadn’t played a minute in the league.
‘Yet he has adjusted very, very quickly to that, which can’t have been an easy thing to do. He’s playing for Pompey, there’s a huge amount of demand on the pitch as well, expectations, and this is a 19-year-old.
‘He has put himself into a position where he’s comfortable coming in and playing games, being very unlucky not to start a league match yet. A couple of things have gone against him, such as the form of the lads playing ahead of him and possibly the tweaks in shape as well.
‘Terry has a really bright future and we are really pleased with him.’
Devlin remains away on international duty, with Northern Ireland under-21s next in action on Monday night against Serbia (7.30pm).
He has so far scored once in eight games since arriving at Fratton Park, while has been a member of the last 10 successive squads he has been available for.
Mousinho added: ‘We trust him and hopefully he sees a lot of trust is there.
‘The easy thing would have been putting a young lad out on loan or maybe letting him sit and wait to develop, not being involved in squads – but he has forced himself into the reckoning, it’s nothing that we have done.’
