Pompey boss John Mousinho transfer latest and Northampton Town preview

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho's transfer latest and Northampton Town preview

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00:00 So John, first of all I have to ask how Joe Morell is after that injury last night please?

00:05 Joe's okay, he's going for a scan tomorrow so we're still making sure that we can take

00:09 all the precautions to keep the weight off the left knee. And yeah, we don't know at

00:14 this stage what it is so we're fingers crossed that it's not too bad. I think we're hopeful

00:19 that it's obviously not something serious but you never know with knees. So we'll see

00:23 what the scan says and then we'll report back Friday or Saturday.

00:26 Does that, his injury, does that make it more pressing to recruit him infield as replacing

00:30 his window?

00:31 We still think we're pretty strong in the middle of the park. I think we've got obviously

00:35 Tom Lowry who came in and did a really good job. Terry Devlin obviously can play in the

00:39 middle of the park and I think Miles has played quite a few games in there as well so no panic

00:43 over that whatsoever at the moment. That's why we've got that squad depth just to make

00:46 sure that we can cover off those positions and certainly something we might look at but

00:51 at the moment we think that everything that we are covering is okay.

00:55 You've already signed four players, do you expect anything more before the end of the

00:59 window?

01:00 There might, maybe, possibly but it's one of those things there, there's a couple of

01:05 things that we have to do first to get some deals over the line. So yeah, we're not done,

01:10 I don't think we're not shutting up shop, we're keeping our eyes open and keeping our

01:13 ears close to the ground. I think even when it gets close to the deadline we'll still

01:18 be searching and making sure that nothing slips the net.

01:21 Have you been in a link with Owen Moxton, anything in that one?

01:24 Yeah, again with Owen I think, Owen's a Carlisle player so no comment from us at that time.

01:29 In terms of the injury, how's Terry Devlin?

01:32 Terry's taken a bit of a knock to the shoulder, no dislocation, no break, no ligament damage

01:36 but it's just been in that challenge I think he landed on it really awkwardly so he was

01:41 in a lot of pain last night I think and got through it for the team which was great but

01:46 it came to a point I think in the second half where the right thing to do was to bring him

01:49 off just to protect him a bit because the thing with Terry, he's got to protect him

01:52 himself because I think he would have played the 90 minutes and we'd have to have actually

01:55 jabbed him off the pitch. We'll assess how that is in a couple of days but nothing long-term.

02:00 And Joe Raff too?

02:01 Joe's fine, Joe trained at the beginning of the week.

02:03 So he could be available for Northampton as well?

02:05 He could be available, yeah. I mean maybe not match fit last night but he trained on

02:09 Monday. We decided against including him in the squad because we thought after two weeks

02:14 out it was maybe one of those things that not having trained a huge amount and needing

02:19 to head the ball quite a bit at this level we just wanted to protect Joe but yeah he's

02:23 fit and ready to go.

02:25 In terms of departures, anything happening in that situation?

02:28 No, nothing at the moment. We will monitor that over the next couple of days. The only

02:33 one that we are looking at is Denver and yeah if we can get a deal sorted there then I think

02:38 it would be best for both parties.

02:41 It's coming towards the end of the window now. Is there any interest in Denver at all?

02:44 I think so, yeah. Again I haven't had a huge amount to do with it so that's between I think

02:49 Denver's agent and the club mostly but I'd be surprised if we don't get something for

02:53 Denver by the end of play Thursday.

02:55 Has he trained today?

02:57 No, Denver wasn't in today. We just gave him a bit of time off just to assess and analyse

03:02 and get him where he needs to go. So nothing imminent but I think it was the best thing

03:06 to do. We're pulling the lads in, getting them to train and if we just give Denver a

03:09 bit of time off and if he comes back in on Friday then so be it. Absolutely great, we've

03:13 got him for the rest of the season and if not because he's found somewhere then that's

03:17 also really good news for us.

03:19 If he does stay beyond this window, is that okay with you?

03:23 Absolutely fine, yeah. No problem.

03:25 What, could he find around the place?

03:27 Yeah, like it's been since the summer when Denver made it obvious to us that he wanted

03:30 to leave, it was fine. We didn't hold any grudges. We thought it was the right thing

03:34 for Denver, the right thing for the football club. So yeah, if he does stay then no issue

03:38 whatsoever.

03:39 Ryan Schofield as well, is he likely to stay?

03:42 Yeah, Ryan will stay. I've heard nothing to the contrary on that.

03:46 In terms of Northampton as well, back to Threatten Park after seven points from three away games.

03:52 Yeah, it sounds a bit strange to moan about the fact that we only took seven from those

03:57 three away games because that's a pretty good return in most circumstances but just last

04:01 night it would have been lovely to have taken those three games in our stride and come away

04:05 with nine points because I think that's what we deserved and also what we really should

04:10 have taken from last night. Well, you could probably argue actually the way we finished

04:13 the game we probably deserved to draw it. So I guess we'll take the seven. The focus

04:19 now is Threatten on Saturday. It's three home games in the next four so we've got to make

04:23 sure that we sort our home form out now. I'm really looking forward to getting back to

04:27 Threatten Park. I think it was good to get on the road, good to banish the demons of

04:31 Leyton Norwich because we were so poor that day but we've got to be right at it from the

04:35 work going on Saturday.

04:36 That's quite unusual for you guys not to see a game out last night, wasn't it?

04:39 Really unusual. It felt to me like when we went 2-1 up I thought well with the professionalism

04:43 we've got in the squad, with some of the experience we've got on the pitch I thought we were going

04:47 to be able to do it, particularly as we've done it so well in difficult circumstances

04:51 on the weekend. We've done it the week before with a sort of barrage from Fleetwood. So

04:56 I thought that we would be able to do it. Obviously we made a substitution, Connor was

05:01 tiring a bit, he was cramping up, his calf was really struggling so we made that substitution

05:04 to get the fresh legs on. It was a bit frustrating really because I thought the team was more

05:10 than capable of going and seeing the game out. I suppose it's one of those things we

05:13 need to learn from it. It was a big part of the post-match review today in terms of what

05:16 we need to do better when we're in those positions.

05:18 With Connor, was that a consequence of you playing Saturday as well after being out for

05:22 so long?

05:23 Yeah, I think we've been out properly since September. I know we played in that Cambridge

05:27 game but properly out since September, since that Barnsley game. We played 60 minutes,

05:31 we had to manage his minutes on Saturday. We were just managing him, he was in a better

05:36 place Tuesday than he was Saturday but we just wanted to manage him again and make sure

05:39 he didn't pick up any injuries. He got to the stage where he was really flagging and

05:43 it became an injury risk so we got him off.

05:45 If he hadn't, would you have kept him on?

05:47 I think we've got capable players coming off the bench anyway so it's one of those things

05:52 where we know we've got players that can come in and have an impact. We think the squad

05:57 is good enough to see those games out and we do think properly.

06:00 Is Connor going to be OK for Saturday as well?

06:03 Yeah, he'll be fine.

06:04 Thank you.

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