Sheffield United: Blades youngster defended despite difficult debut
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Eastwood moved to Fratton Park on an emergency seven day loan following a Covid-19 outbreak among Cowley’s squad.
Despite watching his team beaten 5-3 by the Londoners, Cowley refused to lay the blame for the loss at Eastwood’s door - revealing he was only introduced to his new team mates less than four hours before kick-off.
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Hide Ad“I don’t want to make excuses, it’s the circumstances we all live in in this world and the moment and you have to adapt,” Cowley said. “We adapted and young Jake joined us at the Cobham Hilton (hotel) at 4pm before the game so it wasn’t ideal. I thought he did fine.”


“It wasn’t an easy day for him,” Cowley continued, speaking during his post-match interview with The Star’s sister paper The News. “We didn’t protect him anywhere near as well as we could have done - or anywhere near as well as I expect from my team.
“It certainly changed the way we played because he doesn’t know our way and we didn’t do any rehearsal or practice.”
United were able to let Eastwood depart after signing Robin Olsen or Sweden and AS Roma on a temporary basis before last month’s transfer deadline. Olsen is set to make his debut for Slavisa Jokanovic’s team when Peterborough visit South Yorkshire this weekend, with Wes Foderingham expected to be chosen as his deputy ahead of Michael Verrips.