David James' departure to Bristol City. In the second round of the League Cup match against Crystal Palace on 24 August 2010, Ashdown helped the club progress to the next round after winning 4–3 in the penalty shootout following a 1–1 draw, in which he saved three penalties. Since returning to Portsmouth, he quickly was inserted as their first-choice goalkeeper. Ashdown's proudest moment in a Portsmouth shirt was when he broke a post-war club record for most minutes without conceding a goal (636 minutes) between February and March 2011. Ashdown helped Portsmouth finish 16th in the Championship and made 50 appearances including the League Cup and FA Cup in a season. At the start of the 2011–12 season, Ashdown remained as Portsmouth's first choice goalkeeper, starting the first nine matches of the season. During which, he kept two consecutive clean sheets between 16 August 2011 and 20 August 2011 against Reading and Bristol City. However, Ashdown was dropped to the substitute bench in favour of Stephen Henderson. Following the departure of Henderson, he returned to the starting line–up against Brighton & Hove Albion on 11 March 2012, as the club lost 2–0. Following this, Ashdown established himself as number one for the rest of the 2011–12 season as the only goalkeeper for Portsmouth. However, the club were relegated to League One after losing to Derby County 2–1 on 21 April 2012. At the end of the 2011–12 season, he made twenty–one appearances in all competitions. Following this, Ashdown was released along with Ricardo Rocha and Benjani after the three being told that they would not be offered new contracts because of the club's ongoing financial problems. After being released, he said it was a difficult decision to leave Portsmouth and wished the club every success in the future. Ashdown then supported the bid for the fans to buy back their club, managing to convince 10 other players to pledge their £1000 and paying his towards the fans' successful bid to take over control of Portsmouth. Norwich City (loan) Due to the intense competition for the goalkeeper's spot at Fratton Park, Ashdown was given the opportunity to go out on loan, Portsmouth deciding that this would help his career, and he joined Norwich City for a one-month loan. Ashdown played the first game of a loan spell with Norwich City on 21 October 2006 in a 1–0 win against Cardiff City