Pompey boss John Mousinho's Charlton Athletic preview

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his view on the Charlton Athletic on Saturday and all the other talking points from Fratton Park.

Transcript

00:00 So Jon, looking to Charlton this weekend, how do you see this match?

00:04 I think an exciting match, football against two sides who are certainly competing to try

00:09 and get out of the league and both with real rich histories in the past few years, recent

00:15 Premier League clubs. I know none of that really comes into account on the pitch on

00:20 Saturday but I think it just heightens everything in terms of the expectation around the fixture,

00:24 the amount of fans that we're going to have there and then if you look at what's going

00:27 to go on the pitch in terms of what I do expect Charlton to bring, I think they're a really

00:31 good footballing side since Michael's gone in. Particularly they've played some really

00:34 good stuff, scored quite a lot of goals, I think as many goals as us in the league this

00:37 year and they've got some really good attacking threats in the side so very, very well coached.

00:42 They're going to be a decent threat and I think the whole occasion will be a good one.

00:46 I'm not sure how familiar you are but you've probably got an awful home record against

00:49 Charlton. Are you a superstitious person?

00:53 I am a superstitious person but I don't see this one as superstition, it's just the history

00:56 of books, it's what's happened in the past. Interestingly enough I did watch the game

01:02 last year when Portsmouth lost at home to Charlton, I think it was 3-1 in the lead up

01:07 to taking the job and obviously I saw at the time what the difference in between the two

01:13 sides were but as we stand now, just two completely different sides, different personnel, two

01:17 different head coaches, everything about this fixture is very, very different I think from

01:21 what it was last year and I'm sure everybody's feeling that as well. The past is the past

01:26 in terms of, certainly from our perspective, if we'd have beaten Charlton 12 times in a

01:30 row I'm not sitting here thinking 'oh that's great news for us, it doesn't mean anything

01:34 to us whatsoever' so from the opposite side of the coin, like I said there, it just doesn't

01:40 matter at all.

01:41 Do you believe in bogus sides and that sort of thing?

01:43 No, absolutely not because I genuinely don't think it matters. What relevance to Charlton's

01:50 side last year or the year before have to this fixture, absolutely none whatsoever I

01:54 think. So yeah, it's not anything I think we're concerned about. The only thing we're

01:58 concerned about is the current Charlton side and they pose a real threat and we've got

02:02 to make sure we are at the top of our game to make sure we deal with that.

02:05 What do you make of Charlton since Michael Afton came in?

02:08 Yeah, I mean they've improved, they've scored quite a few goals anyway throughout the season

02:13 but they've continued to score quite a few goals and they've picked up a couple of really

02:17 good results recently. If you look at the last league game where they played Wigan

02:21 on a Tuesday night, they went up there and stormed into a 3-0 lead away from home on

02:24 a Tuesday night and they ended up winning the game I think 3-2. We're all familiar with

02:29 that sort of tale, having done that ourselves this season. So they play really good football,

02:35 Michael Afton's side always have done and he's had success at this level as well so

02:38 we've got to expect that they're going to come here with a solid game plan and they're

02:42 going to try and play a bit of football as well.

02:44 In terms of Pompey at the moment, how are you shaping up?

02:46 Yeah, we're shaping up okay. From the other night we've got no new injury concerns which

02:50 is a real positive and then we're going to welcome one new face back to availability

02:56 for selection this weekend in Marlon and that's a real boost for us I think, having him back

03:02 over the past 10 days in full training. It's been a slow build since that Wigan game and

03:07 yeah very nice to have him back in the fold.

03:09 Is Marlon a realistic contender for the starting XI?

03:12 Yeah absolutely, we want to make sure that when players are back in full training that

03:17 if we do have them back in full training we obviously monitor match fitness but there's

03:20 no reason why Marlon couldn't start the game at the weekend.

03:23 So that's good news. What about Regan Paul and his scan?

03:26 Yeah, Regan Paul's scan, so he had his scan yesterday up in London, we're just waiting

03:29 for the results now. Sometimes they're not the quickest but we should have them this

03:33 afternoon or the latest tomorrow so I'll catch up with Steve after this and yeah we obviously

03:38 want to see what the results are and yeah as quickly as possible find out what's up

03:42 with Regan.

03:43 Is he a contender for Saturday?

03:44 He's unlikely at the moment, I think unless the result comes back and it's pretty conclusive

03:49 that he's okay he's nowhere near 100% so at the minute we'd probably say that Regan's

03:54 ruled out but yeah we'll have to see how he is tomorrow.

03:56 So what is his injury?

03:57 Oh we don't know, it's very difficult to tell with the knee yet and what the extent

04:04 of the damage is so yeah we'll have a, it's definitely his knee so the scan is the reason.

04:09 With things like hamstring tears you know it's a hamstring tear, it's really simple,

04:13 straightforward, so many structures in the knee I think it's better just to wait and

04:15 see what the scan says.

04:16 And Tino, last time we spoke to you you were waiting for the results?

04:19 Yeah so Tino's scan results came back, we managed to get them yesterday, not the best

04:23 news probably slightly worse in terms of the hamstring tear that we knew was going to be

04:27 a hamstring tear so slightly worse in terms of how bad it was.

04:30 So we're looking at sort of eight weeks plus at the moment on that, at the minute we don't

04:34 want to put a definite timescale on it because we're going to get a second opinion, we're

04:38 going to send everything back to Chelsea, Chelsea will decide what to do with it from

04:41 that point onwards and we'll really be guided by them so we've got a bit of information

04:46 in our hands at the moment, Tino's still in with us, he was in today and yeah we'll

04:49 take it from there but not the best news but you know it's one of those things we have

04:53 to deal with.

04:54 What grade is it?

04:55 I couldn't tell you off the top of my head but it's not great.

04:59 So before you were saying six or eight weeks, now you think it's more than eight weeks?

05:04 Probably eight weeks plus at the moment yeah but we do have to see, just get someone to

05:07 read the scan a second time and sometimes with these things you know it's best just

05:12 to take a minute and make sure we get the rehab plan right and probably as well not

05:17 put a definitive timescale on it towards the back end, some injuries are really easy to

05:21 go okay this is a six to eight weeker so I think it's fair to say eight weeks plus and

05:24 we'll see how Tino works throughout that.

05:27 And no fresh injuries at all?

05:29 No fresh injuries from the other night, clean bill of health which was really positive news,

05:33 obviously considering we played the game for such long periods with ten men, a couple of

05:37 the lads had to go again from the weekend, obviously Sean did but Sean didn't play a

05:40 huge amount and Gavin was the other one who played the majority of the game on Sunday

05:44 and the majority of the game again on Tuesday but both have come through fine and so really

05:48 pleasing for that.

05:49 And the team sheet will be written correctly this week?

05:51 I hope the team sheet will be written correctly and if it's not it's obviously Neil's fault

05:56 so yeah, I guess I'm using in hindsight a bit frustrating at the time but yeah you go

06:04 through football for, everybody here has been in football for a long time and you think

06:08 you've seen everything and that was a first for me.

06:10 Thank you.

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