Wycombe Wanderers v Portsmouth: John Mousinho's FA Cup verdict

Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his reaction to the dreadful FA Cup defeat at Wycombe Wanderers.

Transcript

00:00What did you make of Pompey's performance tonight against Wickham?

00:04Really poor, I think really poor in pretty much every aspect. The result's the result,

00:10that's one thing I can take losing, I can take being knocked out of the FA Cup. It wasn't

00:14necessarily our priority this year but I just think we should have been far more competitive

00:17than we were. The most disappointing thing for me was the way that we reacted to going

00:22a goal down. We were by far the better side in the first 15 minutes, we missed a chance

00:26and then Wickham go up with their first chance to put the ball in the back of the net, which

00:29we don't defend properly and we just don't respond off the back of that. Just really,

00:35really poor. Sometimes you're going to lose goals in games, you're going to go a goal

00:39down and we were just really poor after that.

00:42You made changes for obvious reasons because the league is a priority, isn't it?

00:46Yes, and we have to protect players, we have to protect the players. We left a few of them

00:49at home. The first and most important thing tonight was we wanted to not pick up any injuries

00:54so we deliberately left some of the key players out and we made those nine changes. I still

01:00think we should have been much more competitive having made those nine changes. I don't see

01:03any reason why we shouldn't have been able to do that. But yes, the most important thing

01:07is the league. We've got the game on Wednesday and we should have fresh legs going into that.

01:11You said you should have been more competitive and got more out of the game. Why do you think you didn't?

01:16I think there's loads of reasons. We didn't do anything particularly well after that first

01:2415 minutes. I thought we stopped competing. Some of the decisions we made on the ball,

01:29some of the lack of technique in the way that we gave the ball away was just awful. I was

01:37watching players that I know are good players just kept giving the ball away and then we

01:41weren't winning our challenges. The second goal just sums the game up for me. We let

01:45Sonny Bradley unmarked, untouched, have a three-header in the middle of the six-yard

01:49box. I don't know what else we expect, to be honest.

01:53Do you think that exposes your squad about how it needs to be strengthened?

01:57We've known that we want to strengthen in January anyway. We've brought in a couple

02:01of players but I just don't think there's any excuse for the players on the pitch there

02:06to produce what they've produced tonight. I just can't see it.

02:10You made three changes at half-time, presumably Potts and Axton were to protect them in the pre-arrangement?

02:16Yes, Potts and Rob were both 45 minutes. We had Penned in from the start and unfortunately

02:21Jordan just felt his quad so we don't know what the extent of that injury is but we'll

02:24assess that in the morning.

02:25Does it look a bad one or not at the moment, would you say?

02:28Honestly, I don't know. I just took his hand at half-time and we'll assess it later on.

02:33Obviously, Will Norris is still around the club as well, isn't he?

02:36Yes, Will's still here so we've got plenty of strength and depth in the goalkeeping department.

02:39Obviously, you signed Isaac Hayden today?

02:42Yes, that's the good bit of news from today. Isaac coming in the building, so fantastic

02:46signing, bags of Championship and Premier League experience. He joined QPR at a very,

02:51very similar stage last year and was a big part of them getting out of the position they

02:55were in. I'm thrilled to have Isaac in the building and he'll be straight in training

03:01tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll see him in the Portsmouth shirt soon.