John Mousinho's post-match interview after Portsmouth draw with Oxford United

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boos John Mousinho's view of 1-1 draw with Oxford United.

Transcript

00:00So Jon, obviously, disappointment today having taken the lead and also had a penalty miss

00:05as well in a game you had chances to win.

00:08Yeah, take the penalty out of it. We'd like to score it and go a goal up early on and

00:13really increase the pressure. I think the game may or may not have changed from the

00:16back of that, but we got ourselves in front. We got ourselves in front in good fashion.

00:20I thought we were well worthy of the lead. And after that, there wasn't relentless pressure

00:25on our goal. We had the ball, we controlled the game. We gave up a very, very, very soft

00:30goal, I think. And I think it was Oxford's first shot in the second half. Nicko was just

00:34the spectator for most of it. So even after we went running up in the area, that didn't

00:38mean we were rushing to get the ball back in. There wasn't really any urgency. And of

00:42course, we have to win much, much better than that because we need to come away from a game

00:46finish and it won't.

00:47You described it as a must win. Do you feel you should have won today?

00:51Definitely. If you look at the chances and the flow of the game, I think we definitely

00:55should have won. We deserve to win until the chances are created, but you don't deserve

01:00to win if you don't get back in there and you don't defend properly. So we came away

01:04with a draw and we'll have to take that and move on from there.

01:07And what are your feelings about not winning this game?

01:09Any time we don't win a game, I'm gutted. It doesn't matter who it is, whether it's

01:13Oxford, Stoke, West Brom, Sunderland, whoever it is. So, yeah, I'm not happy.

01:19What was the response after Stoke? And you got a response.

01:22Yeah, and it's great. It's brilliant having that response, but we need to put ourselves

01:26in a position where it's not about responding and we should have been a lot better against

01:29Stoke and we could have done the same thing here anyway. So we definitely got that response

01:32the first 10, 15 minutes. We were all over Oxford. We got the penalty, we could score.

01:36The game then probably peaked out slightly towards half-time, but we came out in the

01:42second half, performed really well, got the goal. Yeah, I'm most disappointed for those

01:46that we didn't capitalise on.

01:49Were you confident you would get the response from the players?

01:51Yeah, I mean, the players, when we spoke to them on Thursday, were very realistic about

01:55their own performances on Wednesday night and knew that it was something that wasn't

01:59acceptable and that we had to dust off and get on with it really quickly. And I thought

02:04they did that. They did that really well, considering the physical output and the travel

02:08and everything that was expected of them. I wanted a huge physical output again today

02:12and we got that. That's one of the reasons we made those changes. Yeah, we got that.

02:16It's really difficult for me to summarise to the players there because one part of me

02:18wants to be really furious with the fact that we haven't won the game. But I don't think

02:22I can, which I was realistic about with the lads, but also happy that we've played as

02:28well as we have and created as many chances as we have. It's the most chances we've created

02:31all season by a long, long way. So there's a step in the right direction, there's positivity,

02:35but obviously we won't win it.

02:37Will Norris, obviously a huge decision for yourself.

02:40Yeah, it wasn't an easy decision. I think Will's played every minute of every game since

02:45he's been here, every league game anyway, and I thought it was the right thing to do

02:49just to bring him out after the other night. When we've got a goalkeeper there, or two

02:53goalkeepers there to be fair, with the majority of them and Nico competing for that spot,

02:57it was a tough decision for Will to make.

02:59What did you make of Nico's performance?

03:03He was a spectator for large parts of the game today and I can't remember him making

03:06a save.

03:07It was like one of the first half, he fingered it round the post, wasn't it?

03:09Yeah, it was a really good save.

03:11It probably sums it up in a minute. That comes from us having four players around on the

03:15wing and somebody comes out the other side before, which is almost like the lads are

03:19just trying to win the ball back too much. Just let one player go and everybody else

03:23come around and don't be idiotic about the way that we go and press and the way we're

03:27going to close players down and we're all trying to win the game in whatever mode it

03:32was. Just have a bit more composure about it and Nick made that brilliant save. I didn't

03:38think he had anything to do in the second half up until the goal. So that was what was

03:42disappointing but I'm very pleased with his debut, his distribution, the fact that it

03:45was his first game in this country. I think he can take it all credit for that.

03:49You say it was the right moment for Will to come out. Why was it the right moment do you think?

03:53I just thought after the performance on Wednesday night it was just a tough one for him as well.

03:57In terms of him disappointing with that performance?

03:59Yeah.

04:01And obviously Omani did really well today. Two goals and two games from him.

04:06Yeah, I'm really pleased for Mark. I think he tied towards the end of the game. I felt

04:10his groin as well so we needed to bring him off. I didn't really want to bring him off

04:13but that was something he flagged at half-time so we kept him on a bit longer than we would

04:18like but Mark's never had to give that physical output that he has over the past week. So

04:23I'm really pleased with him. He took his goal really well. I think the only disappointment

04:27for Mark is that he didn't score more.

04:29How have you made of him so far?

04:31I think to come in as a 19-year-old having never experienced football in a championship

04:36and to play as well as he's done over the past week in those three games I think is

04:39a very good contribution and two goals and three starts for us.

04:43It was a classy goal that as well wasn't it?

04:44It really was. We got the ball out wide and really good cross from Murphy getting across

04:48the crown of his man and a really good finish.

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