Pompey 2-1 Stevenage: John Mousinho's post-match reaction

The News, Portsmouth

Blues head coach John Mousinho talks to The News after seeing his side beat fellow promotion-challengers Stevenage at Fratton Park

Transcript

00:00 So Jon, two very different performances in each half, what's the pensioners like about

00:04 both of them today in that victory?

00:06 Yeah, I think exactly that. I was pretty pleased at half time with how we performed, I thought

00:11 we played some really good stuff, I thought we dealt with the conditions, we dealt with

00:15 Steven Idris's press and got out time and time again, created a few opportunities. The

00:19 only disappointment for me was, well a couple of disappointments, that we didn't go 2-0

00:23 up when we had the chance and that we obviously conceded the equaliser because it was something

00:27 that we look at in terms of how Steven Idris play and we think it's predictable. It doesn't

00:31 always mean it's easy to stop but we knew it was coming so we were a bit upset with

00:34 that but to come in at half time with the lead we were really pleased with. Second half,

00:39 on the ball I thought we were poor, I thought we made some poor decisions and we never really

00:43 sustained any pressure in Steven Idris's half and ultimately when you don't do that home

00:48 or away from home, decent enough sides are going to start to turn the screw and I thought

00:53 they did that in the second half. Without creating a huge amount I think there was one

00:57 chance, one really good chance they had where their play was through one on one but apart

01:01 from that I felt we defended our box brilliantly well and we competed and we had to show a

01:07 different side certainly to the first half and a different side to what we've seen most

01:10 of this season which was really pleasing I think especially off the back of everything

01:14 we've dealt with over the last four games and we've not been in sparkling form, we haven't

01:18 won in three and I thought there were a lot of tired legs out there today as well. I can

01:23 see the blip, three games coming to this game, nerves are getting a little bit frayed but

01:28 that answers a few questions wouldn't you say? I think so and what you've got to do

01:33 is get used to winning games, that's the most important thing now. Essentially performances

01:38 are really important to us but towards the back end of the season now with the last however

01:42 many games we've got, I think 21 games left, let's be honest we need to get results and

01:49 results are the most important thing. There are things we're going to have to address

01:53 with the second half performance and we want to try and win games a bit more comfortably,

01:56 put our chances away first of all but also not invite as much pressure as we did. I think

02:01 though you can definitely look at that and I felt it in the second half, I thought we

02:05 looked tired and I thought we looked like a side who were slightly low on confidence

02:09 off the back of the run and had travelled a couple of times over the Christmas period.

02:13 We obviously have to deal with that, we've got to be a bit better in doing that but the

02:16 most important thing was just to get through that and then move on to Saturday. You say

02:19 they looked tired and a little bit low on confidence, that was a great result then in

02:23 that case? Oh brilliant, yeah brilliant. Obviously if you'd offered me that result before the

02:27 game I would have taken it. There were times in the first half I thought well this might

02:31 be the one where we really go and put a side to bed and I thought we looked like a decent

02:35 football side. They're tough games these, they're really tough games because there's

02:39 not a lot of ball in play, the game's quite slow, it's a really physical game, when the

02:43 ball drops sometimes the temptation is just to hook it on and sort of relieve the pressure

02:48 on a goal and we want to just be a bit better in those sort of moments and try and bring

02:52 the ball down and be a bit more composed. So yeah they're really, really tough games

02:54 and when you play a tough game take all of those things into account. I think it is a

02:58 fantastic, fantastic result because it's been a tough little spell for us. What did you

03:03 make of that challenge on Christian Sadie at the end? I thought it was one of the worst

03:05 challenges I've seen on a football pitch and I've been around the game for about 20 years

03:09 and you know Christian's got a nasty cut there, just sort of in between his nose and his eyes.

03:13 So to be fair the referee dealt with it and sent him off, it was one of the most clear

03:18 reds you'll ever see in the game and one of those things that we don't like to see but

03:22 it's happened and Christian will be fine, he's a tough kid. Have you come across anything

03:26 top to much? Yep, plenty, plenty. I mean for Portsmouth fans will remember I played here

03:32 for Oxford and Alex Merritt missed the penalty at the Milton Hicks, it was a nice incident

03:36 after that. So yeah, one of those, I'm sure he didn't mean it but it wasn't a great challenge.

03:42 Is Christian alright at the moment? He's okay, I think he's a bit dazed, I think when you

03:45 stick your head in there and you get four or five studs across your eye, you're never

03:50 in the best place but he seems fine, he seems absolutely fine. So is it above his eye or

03:55 underneath his eye? Just underneath, yeah, there's a lot of blood so just underneath

03:58 I think. But I thought it was the right decision to bring him off first of all because it was

04:02 a bad head injury and we didn't know if we could stop the bleeding and when you take

04:07 a whack like that I think the best thing is just to be secure and make sure that we were

04:11 safe in what we did. Tough lad though isn't he? Christian's a really tough lad, you can

04:14 see that in the way that he plays and how physical he is and he's a big old boy, he

04:17 can look after himself and he'll be absolutely fine and he'll be raring to go come Saturday.

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