Leyton Orient v Pompey: John Mousinho's pre-match verdict

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mosuinho chats to The News ahead of Tuesday night's trip to the O's in the EFL Trophy

Transcript

00:00 So Jon, we're looking ahead now to the Bristol Street Motors trophy. We've discovered that

00:13 Bristol Street is actually in Birmingham and it's named after that. Yes, and obviously

00:18 going to Lake Norring on Tuesday night. So what do you make of this game?

00:21 Well I think we've put ourselves in a really good position to qualify out of the group

00:24 and we've done that through the excellent victory I think we saw against Gillingham.

00:30 Prior to that we were slightly frustrated I think against Fulham. We think we could

00:33 have won that game, obviously won the penalty shootout. So yes, we've put ourselves in a

00:38 really good position and it's a competition that we want to qualify in. It's a competition

00:43 that I think means a lot to Portsmouth fans and over the past few years there's been a

00:46 lot of success there with the football club as well. So yes, a really important game for

00:50 us particularly because I think it's a good one to rebound from Sunday. There's no football

00:55 in the country that wouldn't tell you as soon as you lose a game you want to get straight

00:58 back on it and try and play the next day almost. It's great for us, we've got one day's rest

01:03 so in some ways it's a really difficult challenge and in others we've got exactly what we want

01:08 because we can just rebound and go from there. It's going to be a pretty good game because

01:12 Orient I think since we played them at the start of the season have really picked up.

01:15 How does the Chesterfield result impact on team selection for Leighton Orient?

01:19 It doesn't have any impact so the team selection would have been the same regardless. We had

01:25 a pretty clear picture of what we were going to do over the two games and it has no influence

01:29 on what we're going to try and do tomorrow night.

01:31 So what is your approach to team selection?

01:33 Again it's going to be a strong side regardless of who we put out. We are wary of the fact

01:38 that we're playing two games in ten to two hours so we have to take that into account

01:42 particularly because we've got the league game at the weekend against Charlton which

01:44 is a really important fixture for us. But yes we think we've got the squad depth to

01:48 be able to cover that and I think the most I can say is that we're going to be strong

01:52 whatever side we put out we think we're going to be strong.

01:54 So rotation in the squad, young lads involved in the squad, that sort of thing?

01:59 I think it's going to provide some opportunities for certain players to come in. You've seen

02:02 over the past two EFL Trophy games that we are providing opportunities for young lads,

02:07 for the lads that haven't played a huge amount and for some lads that we think we need to

02:11 just get going and minutes has been really, really important. One of the things that is

02:15 also spurring us on to qualify for this trophy is that when we played those two league cup

02:21 ties, played the two EFL Trophy ties, it gave players at least four starts and that put

02:27 them in really good stead if they were called upon. A great example would be the Port Vale

02:30 game where Sean Raggett and Ben Stevenson came in, they weren't coming in out of the

02:34 cold because they played those games and it's really, really important and they played those

02:38 games at a competitive level. We want to win every game that we play and tomorrow night

02:42 is no different.

02:43 You're at Eastleigh for the night for the Academy defeat to Eastleigh in the FA Youth

02:48 Cup. Will any of that squad be involved at all in the first team at Laing Norrie?

02:53 I think we were obviously at the game the other night, it was a disappointing loss but

02:57 we're tracking the players anyway, we've seen a couple of the young lads play games. I think

03:02 Kobe Motto has had two starts this season for the first team. It was nice for Mitch

03:06 to get his debut as well and we're making sure that we monitor the progress of all the

03:10 Academy lads. I think there will be opportunities tomorrow night for players, we're definitely

03:14 going to have them involved in some way. One of the beauties of the competition is that

03:19 sometimes it does give you a chance to introduce some of the youngsters into the fold and we've

03:23 managed to do that over the past couple of games.

03:24 In terms of injuries, what's the situation at the moment?

03:28 The two obvious injuries that we picked up yesterday were Tino and Regan Poole, far too

03:32 early to tell anything on either of them. Regan's a bit stiff this morning, slightly

03:36 swollen knee but he's moving around without crutches which is a really good sign. I think

03:40 he's going to have a scan Wednesday and Tino's the same in terms of a scan but it's just

03:43 more obvious in terms of what the injury is, Tino's torn his hamstring. So yeah, we're

03:47 looking at, without knowing the full facts of it, we're probably going to be looking

03:51 at about six to eight weeks but the best thing for us to do is to have a look at the scan

03:54 first and then go from there.

03:56 With an injury like that, with a torn hamstring, will he have to return to Chelsea for treatment

03:59 as well?

04:00 I think that will be up to them but I think our preference will probably be to keep him

04:03 here because there's going to be opportunities for him. By the time you tick over after the

04:10 international break, you're already three weeks in so I think it would be beneficial

04:14 to him if he can to stay around here but to be honest, it's completely up to Chelsea.

04:17 You mentioned yesterday how Tino left on a crutch to help him with his hamstring, is

04:21 he still on the crutch today?

04:22 He's still on them, that's standard protocol for a hamstring injury, what you don't want

04:26 to do is inflame it any more and I've torn plenty of hamstrings so crutches for the first

04:31 few days and then once the injury settles down, you're back walking again and just protecting

04:35 the injury, that's all.

04:36 Conor O's release, what's the situation with him?

04:40 Just as normal, so as we expected, that ankle ligament damage that we had suspected so probably

04:47 looking at six to eight weeks for Conor. Similar injury to Marlon, similar injury to Cassini,

04:52 obviously slightly different but that's just to give everybody a picture of where we are

04:56 on that and one of those really unfortunate things slipped when no one was around him

05:00 and went over on his ankle so a bit of ligament damage there, those ankles are just never

05:05 straightforward so not long term, not short term, probably a little medium term one for

05:09 Conor.

05:10 Any more injuries picked up yesterday, Jack Sparks got a knot before he came off?

05:13 No, Jack was fine, Jack is absolutely fine, he trained today, he'll be available for tomorrow

05:19 so no problem with Jack and yet no other injuries, everyone else is fine, like I said, I spoke

05:25 about the wire, Joe Rafferty came off and again he's trained today, available tomorrow

05:29 as well.

05:30 And Marlon and Tom?

05:32 Marlon trained today, he trained with the group so fully back involved today, Tom did

05:36 a modified training session so he did the first part of the session with the lads and

05:39 then he's going and doing a bit of individual work before he builds up so Tom and Marlon

05:43 are building up really nicely, Tom will train with the group tomorrow, Marlon will probably

05:48 do the same I think with a view to building up towards Saturday, might be a bit soon for

05:53 him but there could be an opportunity for Marlon to be back at the weekend, again probably

05:58 slightly soon, we'll probably leave that till after the international break, I think by

06:01 the time we get back for the Blackpool game after the international break I think both

06:04 of them will be available for selection, if not match fit, obviously they won't be match

06:09 fit and I think because of the amount of time Tom's been out we'll just be a bit more cautious

06:13 with him.

06:14 And Anthony Scully, is that the same as before?

06:16 Yeah, Scully is the same as before, progressing nicely, stepping up in the gym, not been outside

06:21 yet but yeah, Anthony's doing well.

06:23 Thank you.

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