Pompey boss John Mousinho's AFC Wimbledon verdict

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his reaction to the 5-2 Bristol Street Motors Trophy thrashing by AFC Wimbledon at Fratton Park.

Transcript

00:00 They've got stuff down here, it must be, I'd leave it.

00:07 So Jon, obviously a disappointing evening for Pompey, how do you assess that match?

00:14 Yeah, I thought we were pretty poor and we deserved to lose the game. We obviously made

00:20 quite a few changes and that seemed to obviously have that negative effect in terms of the

00:24 performance but, you know, it's one of those difficult ones because I came into the game

00:29 thinking we played really well with the side that we'd changed against Fulham, Leighton

00:34 Orient and Gillingham, put in some really, really good performances, especially against

00:37 Leighton Orient with 10 men and couldn't quite get it going tonight for a number of reasons.

00:41 We conceded the first goal and the most disappointing thing I think at that point is that I didn't

00:45 think we reacted particularly well and all of a sudden we found ourselves three goals

00:49 down with the Mountains.

00:50 Understandably, you made changes tonight, didn't you, for this competition?

00:54 Yeah, yeah, we were always going to. We have to make sure that our focus is on league football,

01:01 that's where we ultimately can be judged at the end of the season and we've come off

01:05 the back of four games, three away games, Northampton, Shrewsbury, Burton, the sort

01:11 of emotion here of the Bolton game and the energy that all the lads put in. I thought

01:15 that we needed to change things, we needed a rest and the lads did need a rest, I'm certain

01:19 of that, so I was really glad that I was able to do that with the squad that we've got and

01:23 I just expected a bit more from the squad and from individuals. I even think when they're

01:28 coming in, I give them that it is very difficult to come in from not having a huge amount of

01:33 game time and maybe not being in the squad, not being involved, but I have seen a similar

01:38 side to this in terms of what we put out performed really well and that's probably the most disappointing

01:43 thing.

01:44 Is that down to some of them having a lack of game time and coming into a match and expecting

01:48 to perform, do you feel?

01:49 I think so, I think that can often be the case if you haven't had the game time, if

01:52 you haven't had that match sharpness, but all of the lads pretty much to a man tonight

01:56 have played in the league and they've dropped in and performed really well. When they've

02:00 done that, some have played quite a few games in the league, so it's tough really to use

02:04 that one too much, on top of the fact that AFC made 10 changes as well, so difficult

02:10 really to pin down why we didn't quite have that impetus tonight.

02:13 We've talked often about the strength of the squad, that same strength in the squad didn't

02:18 perform tonight, did they?

02:19 Yeah, and I still think we've got a strong squad, I still think we've got players that

02:22 can come in and compete in a lot of positions and for whatever reason tonight it didn't

02:26 work out, it's not going to be anything that's too drastic in terms of a reaction, we've

02:31 just got to take our medicine tonight. We were beat by a side that were very well organised,

02:34 played well and came here and put five goals past us, so we've got to take it on the chin

02:38 and move on.

02:39 I suppose, those changes, back five changes, in the ref team, in a different position,

02:44 so that's just the liquidity of your team in the league removed, isn't it?

02:47 Yeah, one of the problems, I guess one of the only selection headaches we had coming

02:51 into the game, we spoke about it yesterday, was what we were going to do at centre-half

02:53 and obviously move refs to right-sided centre-half in the first half and that was one, in an

02:59 ideal world, we would like to have not had to do that and obviously with Regan's injury

03:04 at the moment we don't have that luxury and we understand, if we're rolling with four

03:09 centre-halves most of the time that is a really, really fortunate position to be in. We're

03:12 not, we had the three, didn't want to risk Connor Shotman's seat, I thought that would

03:17 be completely pointless considering the position we've got ourselves in. So, yeah, one of those

03:23 things that we didn't quite have that luxury in and obviously towards the back end with

03:26 a really makeshift back three with Denver, Rielly and Harry, that was what we ended the

03:33 game with, absolutely fine, we've got to live with that, we've got to deal with it. I think

03:36 if we want to make those changes we've got to really take on board that that sometimes

03:39 is going to happen.

03:40 How do you think Joe Rafferty did in the centre-half?

03:43 I thought he was absolutely fine to be honest, I thought Joe was one of our better performers

03:45 tonight, really happy with him. I asked him to do that shift, I thought he did it, he

03:50 got on with it, didn't complain at all and I thought he performed well.

03:54 In terms of Ryan Schofield, what do you make of his performance tonight?

03:56 I thought Ryan, without having seen the goals properly back, I thought he was nice and composed

04:03 on the ball. I think Ryan is definitely one of the, well, definitely a really good shot-stopper,

04:08 I've seen it time and time again in training. I'll have to have a look at the goals back

04:12 and see, I think if any goalkeeper comes to these five he's probably going to hope that

04:16 he could have done better but I'm not entirely sure. If you take the free-kick for example,

04:22 it's gone under the wall so I don't think it's anything to do with him. The fifth goal

04:26 is an open goal, it's a tap-in. The bigger issue I have is the fact that we are asking

04:31 our goalkeeper to make saves in the first place, obviously sometimes you have to do

04:35 it but if you look back at the league performances over the past three or four weeks, there aren't

04:39 many times that Will's been called upon.

04:40 What have you made of his time here at Pompom? Because he hasn't played that much has he?

04:43 It must be difficult to be allowed out of the team.

04:45 He's been brilliant, he's a bright spark in the changing room, very, very popular lad,

04:51 straightforward, Yorkshireman and he's great to have around the place. He's been a brilliant

04:55 number two and to be honest I haven't got a bad word to say about him. Again, to come

05:01 in from the cold, not having a huge amount of game time has always been tough.

05:05 If anything happened to Will Norris, would you back Schofield to come in for him?

05:08 Yes, that's why I've got him as a number two. That's something that if you dealt that blow

05:15 then game time would definitely improve Ryan as well. It is tough, it's tough coming in.

05:19 I've been there plenty of times in my career where you come in from not having played that

05:24 many minutes, it just takes a bit of time, hopefully not too long with all the players

05:28 you've got, but it just takes a bit of time to adjust to the match pace. It's the hardest

05:31 thing, you can't replicate it in training.

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