Portsmouth boss John Mousinho's verdict on 2-0 win over Woking

The News, Portsmouth

Woking 0 Pompey 2 - John Mousinho's verdict

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00:00So, John, a 2-0 victory over Woking. What do you make of that game, please?

00:05A really good run out, I think, first and foremost, to get the first minutes of pre-season in,

00:09in a fairly competitive manner, I think, against a really good National League side.

00:13So, yeah, pleased that we've come through it.

00:15I think, first of all, looking for the fitness side of it,

00:18looking to come through unscathed in terms of injuries, which it looks like we have.

00:21And second of all, the performance. I thought the performance was good.

00:24We saw a lot of the things that we've been trying to put into place

00:26over the past two or three weeks.

00:28So, yeah, very, very positive, particularly considering some of the players

00:32that we had coming in and making their senior debuts at a really good level, right?

00:38So, some of the academy boys who have come in a couple of first years as well,

00:42doing a really, really good job and making an impression.

00:45And then third of all, a positive result to start pre-season.

00:48But this first pre-season game, is it just simply about fitness?

00:51Yeah, I think that's the priority. Fitness is the priority.

00:54And, you know, you'd like to not see it be a complete disaster,

01:00as we get sprinkled upon here.

01:02So, we'll move over to the right.

01:04Yeah, you do want to see a half-decent level of performance

01:08and the result, ultimately, if it comes, it's good as well.

01:10It's good to get in those winning habits.

01:12But it's not the most important thing.

01:14We should be able to have a look back at the game

01:16and take a lot of good and a lot of bad as well

01:19and make sure that we improve upon that as the week goes on.

01:22Obviously, Adrian Segacic, a lot of eyes are on him before the game,

01:25the new player in the squad.

01:27And a cracking start for him as well.

01:30Yeah, really good start. Probably could have had another as well,

01:32but took his goal really well.

01:33I thought the most impressive part of Adrian's game today was his pressing.

01:36He pressed, led really well from the front

01:38and he showed the quality as well to put the ball on the back of net.

01:40So, yeah, a very, very promising start for Segacic.

01:43He's not afraid to shoot, are they? He gets no position.

01:45Yeah, I think there's, you know,

01:47if we look back at the success that he had last season,

01:50being the top scorer in the A-League, he does take on a lot of shots.

01:53I think there's sometimes he needs to get the right balance between

01:55sometimes when he can slide in and one of the wingers will slide in

01:58the centre-forward versus taking a shot.

02:00But we don't want to take too much of that out of his game

02:02because he's got such a good strike with the right foot and the left foot,

02:05sorry, the left foot and the right foot as well,

02:07that he's going to get a lot of goals and that's a really pleasing thing for us.

02:11What have you made since he's come to the football club?

02:13He's been very bright, very energetic.

02:14What you saw tonight is a lot of what we've seen every day in training

02:17and he makes things happen.

02:18Works really, really hard and that's the most important thing for us.

02:20Again, to speak about the press at the top end of the pitch,

02:22we know how important that is for us and Seg's really led that tonight.

02:25So I'm very, very pleased with him so far.

02:27I suppose with that energy, you are going to always notice him, aren't you?

02:30Yeah, he's the sort of player that I think excites fans and excites the coaching staff

02:35and very, very good to play with.

02:37That's the minimum that we require in terms of the output

02:39and in terms of the work rate from someone like Adrian.

02:41He did that really well tonight and he's also got the quality off the back of that as well to punish sides.

02:46So with those same 22 that have played tonight, are they going to be playing tomorrow as well?

02:49There might be a couple of alterations based on illnesses

02:54and maybe a couple of players coming back into the fold, but largely it will be the same.

02:58The players missing tonight, what were they missing through?

03:01A combination of things, but we've got a couple of short-term injuries,

03:06a couple of short-term illnesses and that's pretty much it.

03:11So did Colby and Callum come back into training yesterday?

03:15Callum did, Colby hasn't quite yet. We're probably just going to be a bit cautious with Colby,

03:19but Callum's back in training, trained yesterday fully with the side.

03:22He trained today with a smaller group that included Colby

03:25and so it's just the contact side of Colby because he's taken a knock to his ankle.

03:29Are you looking at Crawley for both of those two now?

03:32Probably not Crawley, but definitely Reading.

03:36And where was Tom McIntyre today?

03:38Tom McIntyre picked up a slight knock in training yesterday.

03:42Nothing too bad, but we've just been a bit cautious with him.

03:45And Nico Smith?

03:46Nico, we allowed Nico to stay an extra day out in Austria when we flew back.

03:51So Nico got back into the building today, so he'll be featuring tomorrow.

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