Bristol Rovers 1-2 Pompey: John Mousinho's post-match verdict

The News, Portsmouth

Blues boss John Mousinho chats to The News after his side's Boxing Day loss at Bristol Rovers

Transcript

00:00 What do you make of today's defeat against Bristol Rovers?

00:05 I think the nature of the defeat makes it really disappointing. The fact that we conceded

00:09 so late on, having been the side for the last 15-20 minutes that looked more likely to win

00:13 the game. I think when we take the performances overall, everything was up and down. We controlled

00:19 the game largely in the first half without really creating anything. My disappointment

00:23 there was just the quality in the final third. We put ourselves in good positions, crossed

00:26 the ball behind the goal, put it in the goalkeeper's hands. In that half-time, whilst I thought

00:30 we were pretty comfortable, we hadn't really threatened the goal at all. I think maybe

00:33 one header from Colby. But apart from that, we didn't do enough. At the start of the second

00:37 half, I thought that we just made a few rash decisions and we allowed Bristol Rovers to

00:42 get going, we allowed the crowd to get on top, conceded the goal obviously from a really

00:45 good free kick. But after that, the reaction was brilliant. Once we got the equaliser,

00:50 I thought we were going to go and win it.

00:51 You mentioned reaction, the subs worked as well, didn't they? You looked more likely

00:55 to score if anyone in the final few minutes before that.

00:58 I thought so. I was supposed to sum the game up and obviously it doesn't matter now, but

01:03 their goalkeeper was booked for time-wasting late on. We were the side that thought they

01:08 wanted to go and win the game. They've obviously gone and won it, so fair play to them. But

01:11 we did have that attacking intent late on. We wanted to go and win it. I don't think

01:14 the goal really came because we were too open and expansive. We just made a couple of poor

01:17 decisions. I haven't properly looked at it yet, so I'll have to see it and then revisit

01:22 on Thursday.

01:23 The substitutions had an impact?

01:25 Yes, they had a really good impact. Obviously, Paddy scored. I thought Christian was involved

01:30 in a lot of our good play. I think the disappointment for Christian was that he didn't put the ball

01:34 back in the net. I thought he had enough chances to do so. And yes, Cassini looked lively as

01:37 well.

01:38 I suppose up until the goal, you didn't create that much, did you really?

01:43 No, and in the first half especially, I thought we put ourselves in some good positions, but

01:48 we didn't do enough in terms of creating. I didn't feel in the first half it was because

01:53 we couldn't get into their final third. We got into their final third well, we just didn't

01:56 create enough. The second half was slightly different. I thought we were struggling a

02:00 bit. We were looking to make the change anyway. We made that change early on with Christian

02:04 coming on. It's something we haven't struggled with too much this season, but again, we need

02:09 to make sure we do create a bit more.

02:11 A few really good performers this season didn't quite come through this game, did they? What

02:15 do you think that's down to?

02:17 I think there's a lot of factors. We've got some young lads in there who have been excellent

02:20 for us and sometimes can be up and down. We obviously accept that and take that. We obviously

02:29 have high expectations as a football club internally and externally quite rightly because

02:33 of the performances that everybody's seen this year and the amount that all of the boys

02:37 have put in. So, it's hard to really put our finger on it. That's obviously our job. We'll

02:41 go away and try and figure out why and make sure we get team selection right for the 29th.

02:46 But one of those things is just tough on the States.

02:49 Alex Robertson, that's not what the Alex Robertson we know is this season.

02:52 No, and Robbo knows that. Obviously, it was a couple of things. Probably not his finest

02:59 in terms of what we know he's capable of. He was on the booking as well, so we wanted

03:01 to protect him. There were a couple of times in the first half where they broke beyond

03:05 and Robbo couldn't do anything about it because he was on that booking. So, we had to make

03:09 sure we protected him from that point.

03:11 He's set the bar so high. He's a kid still.

03:14 Yeah, he's a young lad and he's been brilliant. Robbo's been absolutely brilliant. Abi's

03:18 been brilliant. They're just two young lads we've got on loan. Sometimes you get that.

03:22 You get the stellar performances from these players that we know they're capable of. We're

03:27 going to keep pushing to make sure we get that week in, week out because we know they

03:30 are capable of it. I think the demands at this football club should be really high.

03:34 We saw the response after the Blackpool game. Presumably, you want another one now.

03:38 Yeah, the response is the important thing. We want to make sure we don't have to keep

03:43 putting responses in, if that makes sense. But we've lost the game. We've got to go again

03:47 Friday. It's a really big game for us now. Two massive games coming up in a short space

03:52 of time.

03:53 Yeah, but Friday is. It's a huge game, isn't it?

03:56 Yeah, and it would have been a huge game anyway. Today, maybe we would have earned the right

04:02 to take a point if we hadn't have drawn at the weekend and didn't bleak Fleetwood. We

04:08 want to win every game. We want to go into every game positively and try and come out

04:11 with three points and we're going to do the same Friday. Thank you.

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