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Portsmouth v Cardiff: John Mousinho's pre-match press conference
The News, Portsmouth
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10/02/2025
Pompey boss John Mousinho talks to The News ahead of the Blues' meeting with Cardiff City in the Championship.
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Transcript
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00:00
John, obviously we know the outcome of Sassi's result, but even though you didn't get the
00:04
three points, what can you take from that game in terms of giving yourself belief, confidence
00:10
from the manner of that performance?
00:11
Yeah, I think we should take a lot of positivity from the way that we went about our business
00:15
for the entire 90 minutes and it's the best away performance I think of the season despite
00:22
not getting the result and I think it's moving in the right direction certainly from where
00:26
we've been for some of the away performances and some of the away games it feels like over
00:30
the past couple of weeks we haven't necessarily got the results but we're putting together
00:33
much more solid performances, we're looking like less likely to concede and where that's
00:39
been our downfall this season in terms of conceding some of those heavier away defeats
00:44
in particular.
00:45
So I'm really, really pleased with all of that, pleased with the fact that we created
00:47
a lot of chances as well and the biggest disappointment is that we didn't put the ball in the back
00:51
of the net to take the lead and to give ourselves a bit of a cushion because I do think by the
00:56
time Sheffield United scored it would have been perfectly reasonable for it to be 3-4-1
01:00
to us in the game.
01:01
It wasn't as it was so we've got to deal with that and move on but also take a lot of confidence
01:05
from it.
01:06
Obviously you need points away from home but sometimes you also need a good performance
01:10
especially the previous results.
01:12
Yeah I think we needed a good performance more so because of previous performances more
01:16
than anything so the fact that we've gone away too many times recently over the past
01:20
couple of months and not put in performances that are anywhere near good enough and there's
01:26
a couple of games where we've not even been in the game at half time and that's been unacceptable
01:32
for us to do that, for the away fans, for everybody connected to the football club so
01:36
we've been working hard to try and put that right.
01:37
There's been a bit of head scratching because the home form's been so good and we've been
01:40
performing so well at home with the same set of players and largely the same set of players
01:44
and the same approach so yeah we did tweak things very, very slightly but it wasn't a
01:48
huge tweak.
01:50
We have to take a lot of confidence from that, in my opinion we were much the better side
01:55
against one of the top sides in the league who are currently second and we've gone to
01:59
Bramall Lane and given them a really good run for the money and we've got to make sure
02:03
we continue to do that no matter who we're playing for the rest of the season.
02:06
With 15 games to go, what do you make of the relegation battle down there in the Championship?
02:12
Well it's interesting, I think everything now is very much well formed in terms of where
02:17
the league is, you can look at the league and it's pretty distinct, you've got the top
02:20
four teams, there's a few teams that are battling for the final two play-off positions and then
02:25
there's probably quite a few teams that are really involved down at the bottom and Swansea
02:29
picked up a good result yesterday but there's been a couple of sides that you would have
02:34
thought would have just been comfortable and away with it, particularly after we played
02:38
them, Derby would have been one I thought, Cardiff in particular, Stoke but sometimes
02:42
they don't pick up results and end up down at the bottom so it's still really tight and
02:45
I'm sure there's some of the clubs at mid-table as well that are thinking we just need to
02:50
get to 50 points and be done with it so there's probably a very clear group who are in that
02:58
sort of relegation battle but there's probably quite a few at mid-table that could consumably
03:01
get sucked into it as well.
03:02
What sort of position would be safe do you feel?
03:06
What would be safe?
03:07
What in the current league at the moment?
03:09
I don't know actually, I don't know off the top of my head because it does go tight, you
03:12
keep edging up the league and thinking maybe they're alright, maybe they're alright but
03:15
it's actually only a couple of losses or a couple of wins away from being tracked back
03:18
into it and there's honestly plenty of clubs that I thought they're just going to be nowhere
03:22
near it and all of a sudden, Swansea last week and Swansea at the weekend, you're thinking
03:27
I never would have thought in a million years that they'd been dragged into it, a big result
03:29
for them at the weekend and all of a sudden they're okay.
03:32
I think every club down there will just be striving to get to 50 points and just maybe
03:38
try and get a couple more on the board as well just to be sure, that feels like it's
03:42
about the right mark this season so we're not necessarily targeting that but the quicker
03:46
we can hopefully get to that and then push on from there the better.
03:49
So 50 points is your target as well I take it?
03:52
Just to get there as quickly as possible I think, you never know, it might not be enough
03:55
to keep you in the league so you don't want to get to 50 and then just down tools and
03:58
think that's enough but it's a nice enough target I think to actually strive for and
04:03
to aim for and then just to hopefully do that as soon as possible and then kick on again.
04:07
And obviously the next two games against sides that are rivals really to stay up I would imagine?
04:13
Yeah certainly the game tomorrow night, I think it's a chance to definitely move league
04:16
position and depending on how Oxford get on as well then we're going to have a really
04:19
interesting game because Sam and Oxford, they're a side who start the season in brilliant form,
04:25
flying away with it, doing very, very well, went through a really difficult patch and
04:30
found themselves below us and then all of a sudden since Gary's come in they've done
04:33
really well so there's plenty of, it was very, very tight, I'd describe it as very, very
04:38
tight and it can change in a week, we've got two big games coming up at the end of this
04:43
week and they come thick and fast after that as well, there's just sort of no letting up
04:47
so every time we approach a game we just have to try and win it regardless of who it's against.
04:52
Mark Omani, is he close being considered for selection?
04:56
Yeah Mark's back and available for selection now.
05:00
Was he not selected on Saturday through the loan issue?
05:03
Maybe a slight percentage of that but it was more because it was just his first full week
05:07
back in training so we weren't 100% sure if he was ready or not so from today's session
05:12
onwards he'll definitely be fit.
05:14
Then you got the loan issue, you had the six loans.
05:16
Then we got the loan issue which we were fully aware of and again we just thought it made
05:20
us stronger so we'll have to balance and judge that as we see fit at the time.
05:25
What can a fit Mark Omani give you aside?
05:27
Well I think what he did when he was at the top of his game, when he first came onto the
05:31
scene with us and he scored a couple of goals, led the line really well, some performances
05:35
I thought he was excellent, some then probably were very similar to what you expect from
05:40
a first loan coming out of that PL2 league but overall I was really, really pleased with
05:46
Mark's contribution.
05:47
I think first of all to be competitive, to start as many games as he did, to score those
05:51
goals, particularly the crucial goal against Oxford, I was really happy with him so I think
05:55
as far as first loans go, Mark will be disappointed if he got injured and he spent a large amount
06:00
of time out I think since the Swansea game but now he's back he's got a really good opportunity
06:03
to kick on.
06:04
Obviously for the Championship you have nine substitutes, you can't select all nine,
06:09
five, but how many strikers would be the ideal number for you on the bench?
06:16
Well I think the way we saw it at the weekend was that we had a bit of flexibility with
06:20
certain players that we had on the bench and certain players that we had on the pitch
06:23
so I think it's sort of game to game really.
06:27
I think you've at least got to have one on there, sometimes two is a nice luxury to have,
06:32
it just depends what you've got, it depends who's available, it depends who you think
06:34
is really firing, but yeah certainly I think in games as well we do have the option to
06:40
play Callum up front, I think he's done that a couple of times this season and done really
06:44
well so we thought we had that option, we'd obviously had Christian on the bench as well
06:47
and Corby leading the line so we felt we were pretty secure.
06:52
Waddingham, is he okay if he wasn't in the squad?
06:53
Yeah Tom's fine, that's fine it was just a selection.
06:59
In terms of injuries as well, what's the latest in Regan Paul?
07:02
Regan trained with us today for about a quarter of the session so he'll build up this week
07:06
hopefully to train fully either at the back end of this week or start next week.
07:10
So how's it planned with him then, is he in back?
07:14
Just he'll be back, he'll be available, as soon as he's done one full training session
07:17
he'll be available.
07:17
Are you avoiding putting a time frame on his comeback at all?
07:21
I mean I'd say Friday, Friday he should be available for a squad, if not it'll be Monday
07:27
so it's not too far away.
07:28
And you say he trained today, how did he do?
07:31
He's fine, he's fine, we hardly dealt with him today.
07:36
Any other injuries as well?
07:37
No, no all clear on that.
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