West Brom keeper outlines frenetic story of Portsmouth arrival

The 20-year-old became the Blues’ fourth summer signing on Thursday - penning a season-long loan move from West Brom.

After just two days of training, the keeper was thrown straight into the starting XI to face Gillingham in a pre-season friendly, a game which Danny Cowley’s side went onto win 2-1.

Despite a shaky start, Griffiths grew into the game - keeping a clean sheet in his opening 64 minutes in a Pompey shirt before being replaced by Toby Steward.

However, the West Brom loanee admitted that the last few days have been ‘really busy’ after featuring for the Baggies’ under-23s less than 48 hours before his move.

He told The News: ‘It’s been really busy the last few days, I played against Maccelsfield on Tuesday night for West Brom under-23s and then drove straight down Wednesday morning.Did all my medicals and then was able to train Thursday and Friday.

‘Everyone has been great, the manager has been demanding a lot from training, the lads have been really nice helping me settle in well and have been amazing with me moving down.’

‘I’m still getting used to things, how the team plays, meeting new faces but I’m happy and now the focus is on to Tuesday.

‘The plan for me is just to get as many minutes as I can to be ready for the start of the season.’

Griffiths has recently returned from a pre-season camp in Portugal and admitted that he had to be assessed by Steve Bruce before he could make a move elsewhere.

The keeper claims that there has been interest for most of the summer but had to play the waiting game before being able to strike a deal.

He followed: ‘I’ve known the move could be on for a little while and it was a case of waiting at West Brom to see what was happening with the goalkeeper department.

‘Obviously the manager there hadn’t seen me play because I’ve been on loan and I had my injury.

‘I’ve known about it for a little while and it was a case of keeping it quiet because, fingers crossed, moving to a massive club like Portsmouth is something I wanted to do.’