John Mousinho Pompey verdict - Exeter City - video Dailymotion

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his reaction after victory over Exeter City.

Transcript

00:00 here with Pompey Boss, John Massino.

00:01 John, quite a breathless evening.

00:03 What was it like for you from the sidelines?

00:05 Yeah, exactly that.

00:06 I think breathless, especially in the second half.

00:08 The first half was a lot more controlled and calm in terms of our performance.

00:11 I thought we were excellent for 45 minutes.

00:13 And my only criticism at that point was that we didn't go a goal or two goals up

00:16 with some of the chances we created in the last 10 minutes

00:19 and some of the opportunities we had in wide areas, set pieces

00:21 and the delivery wasn't good enough.

00:24 But yeah, the second half was very different.

00:26 We gave Exeter a chance to regroup at half time.

00:27 They came out and played slightly differently

00:29 and caused us a few more problems.

00:30 The only thing I would say about that is I think they left themselves

00:33 a bit more exposed and they came out there more expansive

00:35 and we managed to take advantage of that.

00:37 And I thought, again, not to too much of a down on it.

00:40 I thought we could have gone one or two goals up

00:42 and just seen the game off comfortably with some of the chances we created

00:45 and just didn't manage the game particularly well in the last 10 minutes,

00:48 which didn't do anything for the stress levels we were feeling on the sideline.

00:52 I want to pick up on the occasion and the fact that the fans,

00:54 they liked what they saw in the first half and made their feelings known,

00:57 even though there was no goal.

00:58 And then they had to be patient for when the goal did arrive,

01:01 but stayed with the team the whole way through.

01:02 Yes, and it's amazing.

01:03 And it seems like the atmosphere has really, really lifted

01:06 since the back end of last season.

01:08 Understandably, we weren't playing, I think, attacking enough football.

01:11 And they responded really well in the first half.

01:13 We were on the front foot.

01:14 We kept recycling possession and getting the ball.

01:17 I thought we had Exeter pinned in the half.

01:19 I think the only time that we really had a couple of problems

01:22 is when we had to defend a corner in the second and the third phase,

01:25 which we did really well.

01:27 Apart from that, really, really excellent.

01:29 And the crowd responded, I said to the players,

01:31 the crowd will respond to the way that you perform.

01:33 You don't have to be 10 out of 10 every week.

01:34 And you don't have to be 5-0 up at half-time every time.

01:37 You're 0-0, really, really positive.

01:39 And they'll lift you in the second half.

01:40 We know that.

01:41 We've probably got to try and score a few more goals at the Milton end.

01:43 The ball just gets sucked in at the Fratton end all the time.

01:46 But, you know, overall, the atmosphere again,

01:49 the special, special Tuesday nights at Fratton Park, I think, are unrivalled.

01:52 There was an early moment, I think it was with Connor and Anssi Scully,

01:55 sort of pinned them in down by the corner flag.

01:57 And the fans responded to that.

01:58 And that kind of seemed to set the tempo.

01:59 It shows you certain qualities that they respond to.

02:02 It's not necessarily all about dazzling skill all the time.

02:04 It's about certain other more stoic qualities sometimes as well.

02:08 And I've always said that it's a bit of an intangible,

02:10 but what the fans want to see, they want to see passion and work rate.

02:13 And, yeah, they want to see a bit of quality off the back of that.

02:15 You can't just be passionate and work hard and be rubbish at football.

02:18 But, you know, good football is in there.

02:20 And we've got players that can really affect games.

02:23 And, yeah, for us, we've got to keep working on all those technical aspects

02:27 of the game. But ultimately, if we're front-footed and we do pin sides in

02:31 and we keep attacking, we keep crossing the ball and we keep getting the ball to Colby,

02:33 then, you know, I think the fans will respond as they did tonight.

02:36 And when you want that decisive moment to arrive,

02:38 you want it to arrive at the foot of Colby Bishop.

02:41 Yeah, I mean, thankfully, we've got a few strikers,

02:44 at least two that are in really good goal-scoring form.

02:47 And we're trying to spread the goals throughout.

02:50 And in terms of where we are this season, we don't want to just rely on Colby.

02:52 That's what he does so well.

02:53 When he gets a chance, he puts it in the back of the net.

02:56 And, you know, when it fell to him and you got him on the turn,

03:00 we see him do that day in, day out in training.

03:02 We see him stay out with the bag of balls, the old cliche,

03:06 and do his extras and work on that.

03:07 And, you know, the hard work pays off.

03:09 Ultimately, it's no secret.

03:11 And as things became quite open at the end,

03:14 I mean, Will Norris really earned his money there in the Diane Embers.

03:18 An amazing save.

03:19 The frustration, from my point of view, is where it came from.

03:21 I think it came from a throw in the corner over here, just where we're standing.

03:24 I'm criminal in terms of us allowing that to happen.

03:26 I think we managed the game really poorly.

03:29 We've got a way we want tonight.

03:30 We're going to have to do a bit of work on that, especially as we've got...

03:34 With the subs we made, we probably ended the game with a youngish team,

03:38 but we've got enough experience in there to know how to see games out a bit better.

03:43 We've got to do that.

03:44 Not every game is going to be thorn out.

03:47 And we're going to be able to sort of waltz to victory.

03:49 They're going to be really, really tough.

03:51 I thought Exeter were an excellent side.

03:52 I think they will do really well in this league.

03:55 We beat Wickham on the opening day, drew with Blackpool, beat Corley.

04:00 They'll be up there.

04:01 We've got to be better.

04:02 We can't give good sides a sniff.

04:04 The players are missing out again.

04:07 Terry Devlin, Ben Steeves and Riley Salerno not making the squad tonight.

04:09 Yeah, really tough.

04:11 Really, really tough on training them this afternoon and the excellent attitude that they showed.

04:14 It's really difficult for us.

04:17 We're going to have to sit and scratch our heads on Thursday in terms of team selection for Saturday again,

04:21 because we've got players that are really competing.

04:23 We've got players coming off the bench that are really, really making a difference.

04:26 And Jack Sparks and Abu Spring to mind in terms of two that really made a difference there.

04:32 Christian Sadie was absolutely fine with it, but you can come and argue about how he's been left out the side.

04:40 It was a good rest for him tonight.

04:42 Great sub to bring on.

04:43 I'm really, really thrilled to have that strength from Dex.

04:47 And Cassie Inge's got those goals and couldn't even get on the pitch this evening.

04:50 He couldn't get a minute on the pitch.

04:51 Cassie's got four goals in about 90 minutes of football.

04:53 So, yeah, I mean, that's fierce, fierce competition.

04:57 I think if we needed a goal, I think you know where we would have turned.

05:00 And that would have probably been our next substitution.

05:02 It's tough for Cass because Colby is leading the line.

05:07 And the reaction I saw in there after we won 1-0 and Cassie's up and he's filled, he's high-fiving everyone.

05:13 That's what we need. His chance will come.

05:15 He's been absolutely excellent since he's come in.

05:17 And all the lads have, to be fair.

05:18 They've really got round each other.

05:21 And they know that I think the more success the side has, the better, even for the fringe players.

05:26 And they will all play a big part this season.

05:28 You think you're getting that buy-in from them in that sense?

05:31 I think so.

05:31 And it's a couple of, there's been a couple of occasions where I've been able to demonstrate that.

05:36 Connor Shaughnessy, who again was rock solid tonight and was out of the squad 10 days ago because of the competition that was there.

05:43 Jack Sparks probably could count himself very, very unlucky to not start tonight.

05:46 But we need him to come on and make a difference.

05:48 And Abu came off at half-time on Saturday, came on, he was excellent today.

05:52 Probably in his preferred position and was a real bright spark.

05:55 So hopefully the lads see that.

05:58 They know that it's one injury, one change in the way that we think about games.

06:02 Just one little thing that we want to change and players are coming in.

06:06 And there are 43 league games left.

06:07 That is a huge, huge way to go.

06:09 And things will definitely change between now and the back end of the season.

06:12 And there's a huge amount in between that.

06:14 They've got to understand that.

06:16 I'll hold my breath as I ask this, but the news on Tom Lowry?

06:19 Yeah, it's sort of as we expected.

06:22 Tom's due for surgery on Thursday.

06:24 Meniscus injury.

06:25 So what it means, it's going to be anywhere from three to five months, unfortunately,

06:29 because they don't know what it's going to be when they actually get in there.

06:32 You know, real, real shame for Tom.

06:34 He's obviously gutted, but I think he was half expecting the news.

06:38 Real long-term for us, real unfortunate.

06:41 One of those things, I think, you know, I spoke about it in the press the other week,

06:46 that Tom's picked up some muscular injuries in the past, etc, etc.

06:50 This is just a meniscus tear.

06:52 He's nothing you can do about it.

06:54 You know, he's gutted.

06:55 He'll come back stronger.

06:57 Yeah, but a real blow for us.

06:58 I'm sure you'll all get around him now as well.

07:00 Yeah, absolutely.

07:01 And he was there in the changing room after the game.

07:03 And Tom's such a great character to have around the place.

07:05 And he was actually, you know, a real lift towards the back end of last season.

07:10 It was great to have him around training because everyone knew how good he was.

07:12 It was brilliant.

07:13 I thought we brought him on in the Cambridge game,

07:15 which probably shows what impact he had because I really remember it.

07:18 And when we get him on the pitch, he does some really good things.

07:21 He's an excellent player.

07:22 So, yeah, we'll get around him and he'll come back stronger.

07:24 Do you need to react to that in terms of recruitment now?

07:27 We've been proactive in terms of what that looks like.

07:30 It was quite a funny one for us.

07:33 I think by the time we got Tom's news, we'd just signed Alex.

07:35 And then 24 hours later, we sort of had our feet up on the table,

07:39 monitoring everything like we said we would do for the last two weeks.

07:41 And all of a sudden there's a change.

07:42 So, yeah, we're thankfully very, very proactive in the recruitment department.

07:46 And there's a lot of options.

07:49 I'm not talking about options to bring in, but there's options in terms of whether we do something or whether we don't.

07:54 Loans, permanence, all of those sort of things.

07:55 So we'll knuckle down now over the next few days, knock our heads together and decide if we want to do anything or not.

08:01 Cheers.

08:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]

John Mousinho Pompey verdict - Exeter City

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