Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his reaction after victory over Exeter City.
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00:00 here with Pompey Boss, John Massino.
00:01 John, quite a breathless evening.
00:03 What was it like for you from the sidelines?
00:05 Yeah, exactly that.
00:06 I think breathless, especially in the second half.
00:08 The first half was a lot more controlled and calm in terms of our performance.
00:11 I thought we were excellent for 45 minutes.
00:13 And my only criticism at that point was that we didn't go a goal or two goals up
00:16 with some of the chances we created in the last 10 minutes
00:19 and some of the opportunities we had in wide areas, set pieces
00:21 and the delivery wasn't good enough.
00:24 But yeah, the second half was very different.
00:26 We gave Exeter a chance to regroup at half time.
00:27 They came out and played slightly differently
00:29 and caused us a few more problems.
00:30 The only thing I would say about that is I think they left themselves
00:33 a bit more exposed and they came out there more expansive
00:35 and we managed to take advantage of that.
00:37 And I thought, again, not to too much of a down on it.
00:40 I thought we could have gone one or two goals up
00:42 and just seen the game off comfortably with some of the chances we created
00:45 and just didn't manage the game particularly well in the last 10 minutes,
00:48 which didn't do anything for the stress levels we were feeling on the sideline.
00:52 I want to pick up on the occasion and the fact that the fans,
00:54 they liked what they saw in the first half and made their feelings known,
00:57 even though there was no goal.
00:58 And then they had to be patient for when the goal did arrive,
01:01 but stayed with the team the whole way through.
01:02 Yes, and it's amazing.
01:03 And it seems like the atmosphere has really, really lifted
01:06 since the back end of last season.
01:08 Understandably, we weren't playing, I think, attacking enough football.
01:11 And they responded really well in the first half.
01:13 We were on the front foot.
01:14 We kept recycling possession and getting the ball.
01:17 I thought we had Exeter pinned in the half.
01:19 I think the only time that we really had a couple of problems
01:22 is when we had to defend a corner in the second and the third phase,
01:25 which we did really well.
01:27 Apart from that, really, really excellent.
01:29 And the crowd responded, I said to the players,
01:31 the crowd will respond to the way that you perform.
01:33 You don't have to be 10 out of 10 every week.
01:34 And you don't have to be 5-0 up at half-time every time.
01:37 You're 0-0, really, really positive.
01:39 And they'll lift you in the second half.
01:40 We know that.
01:41 We've probably got to try and score a few more goals at the Milton end.
01:43 The ball just gets sucked in at the Fratton end all the time.
01:46 But, you know, overall, the atmosphere again,
01:49 the special, special Tuesday nights at Fratton Park, I think, are unrivalled.
01:52 There was an early moment, I think it was with Connor and Anssi Scully,
01:55 sort of pinned them in down by the corner flag.
01:57 And the fans responded to that.
01:58 And that kind of seemed to set the tempo.
01:59 It shows you certain qualities that they respond to.
02:02 It's not necessarily all about dazzling skill all the time.
02:04 It's about certain other more stoic qualities sometimes as well.
02:08 And I've always said that it's a bit of an intangible,
02:10 but what the fans want to see, they want to see passion and work rate.
02:13 And, yeah, they want to see a bit of quality off the back of that.
02:15 You can't just be passionate and work hard and be rubbish at football.
02:18 But, you know, good football is in there.
02:20 And we've got players that can really affect games.
02:23 And, yeah, for us, we've got to keep working on all those technical aspects
02:27 of the game. But ultimately, if we're front-footed and we do pin sides in
02:31 and we keep attacking, we keep crossing the ball and we keep getting the ball to Colby,
02:33 then, you know, I think the fans will respond as they did tonight.
02:36 And when you want that decisive moment to arrive,
02:38 you want it to arrive at the foot of Colby Bishop.
02:41 Yeah, I mean, thankfully, we've got a few strikers,
02:44 at least two that are in really good goal-scoring form.
02:47 And we're trying to spread the goals throughout.
02:50 And in terms of where we are this season, we don't want to just rely on Colby.
02:52 That's what he does so well.
02:53 When he gets a chance, he puts it in the back of the net.
02:56 And, you know, when it fell to him and you got him on the turn,
03:00 we see him do that day in, day out in training.
03:02 We see him stay out with the bag of balls, the old cliche,
03:06 and do his extras and work on that.
03:07 And, you know, the hard work pays off.
03:09 Ultimately, it's no secret.
03:11 And as things became quite open at the end,
03:14 I mean, Will Norris really earned his money there in the Diane Embers.
03:18 An amazing save.
03:19 The frustration, from my point of view, is where it came from.
03:21 I think it came from a throw in the corner over here, just where we're standing.
03:24 I'm criminal in terms of us allowing that to happen.
03:26 I think we managed the game really poorly.
03:29 We've got a way we want tonight.
03:30 We're going to have to do a bit of work on that, especially as we've got...
03:34 With the subs we made, we probably ended the game with a youngish team,
03:38 but we've got enough experience in there to know how to see games out a bit better.
03:43 We've got to do that.
03:44 Not every game is going to be thorn out.
03:47 And we're going to be able to sort of waltz to victory.
03:49 They're going to be really, really tough.
03:51 I thought Exeter were an excellent side.
03:52 I think they will do really well in this league.
03:55 We beat Wickham on the opening day, drew with Blackpool, beat Corley.
04:00 They'll be up there.
04:01 We've got to be better.
04:02 We can't give good sides a sniff.
04:04 The players are missing out again.
04:07 Terry Devlin, Ben Steeves and Riley Salerno not making the squad tonight.
04:09 Yeah, really tough.
04:11 Really, really tough on training them this afternoon and the excellent attitude that they showed.
04:14 It's really difficult for us.
04:17 We're going to have to sit and scratch our heads on Thursday in terms of team selection for Saturday again,
04:21 because we've got players that are really competing.
04:23 We've got players coming off the bench that are really, really making a difference.
04:26 And Jack Sparks and Abu Spring to mind in terms of two that really made a difference there.
04:32 Christian Sadie was absolutely fine with it, but you can come and argue about how he's been left out the side.
04:40 It was a good rest for him tonight.
04:42 Great sub to bring on.
04:43 I'm really, really thrilled to have that strength from Dex.
04:47 And Cassie Inge's got those goals and couldn't even get on the pitch this evening.
04:50 He couldn't get a minute on the pitch.
04:51 Cassie's got four goals in about 90 minutes of football.
04:53 So, yeah, I mean, that's fierce, fierce competition.
04:57 I think if we needed a goal, I think you know where we would have turned.
05:00 And that would have probably been our next substitution.
05:02 It's tough for Cass because Colby is leading the line.
05:07 And the reaction I saw in there after we won 1-0 and Cassie's up and he's filled, he's high-fiving everyone.
05:13 That's what we need. His chance will come.
05:15 He's been absolutely excellent since he's come in.
05:17 And all the lads have, to be fair.
05:18 They've really got round each other.
05:21 And they know that I think the more success the side has, the better, even for the fringe players.
05:26 And they will all play a big part this season.
05:28 You think you're getting that buy-in from them in that sense?
05:31 I think so.
05:31 And it's a couple of, there's been a couple of occasions where I've been able to demonstrate that.
05:36 Connor Shaughnessy, who again was rock solid tonight and was out of the squad 10 days ago because of the competition that was there.
05:43 Jack Sparks probably could count himself very, very unlucky to not start tonight.
05:46 But we need him to come on and make a difference.
05:48 And Abu came off at half-time on Saturday, came on, he was excellent today.
05:52 Probably in his preferred position and was a real bright spark.
05:55 So hopefully the lads see that.
05:58 They know that it's one injury, one change in the way that we think about games.
06:02 Just one little thing that we want to change and players are coming in.
06:06 And there are 43 league games left.
06:07 That is a huge, huge way to go.
06:09 And things will definitely change between now and the back end of the season.
06:12 And there's a huge amount in between that.
06:14 They've got to understand that.
06:16 I'll hold my breath as I ask this, but the news on Tom Lowry?
06:19 Yeah, it's sort of as we expected.
06:22 Tom's due for surgery on Thursday.
06:24 Meniscus injury.
06:25 So what it means, it's going to be anywhere from three to five months, unfortunately,
06:29 because they don't know what it's going to be when they actually get in there.
06:32 You know, real, real shame for Tom.
06:34 He's obviously gutted, but I think he was half expecting the news.
06:38 Real long-term for us, real unfortunate.
06:41 One of those things, I think, you know, I spoke about it in the press the other week,
06:46 that Tom's picked up some muscular injuries in the past, etc, etc.
06:50 This is just a meniscus tear.
06:52 He's nothing you can do about it.
06:54 You know, he's gutted.
06:55 He'll come back stronger.
06:57 Yeah, but a real blow for us.
06:58 I'm sure you'll all get around him now as well.
07:00 Yeah, absolutely.
07:01 And he was there in the changing room after the game.
07:03 And Tom's such a great character to have around the place.
07:05 And he was actually, you know, a real lift towards the back end of last season.
07:10 It was great to have him around training because everyone knew how good he was.
07:12 It was brilliant.
07:13 I thought we brought him on in the Cambridge game,
07:15 which probably shows what impact he had because I really remember it.
07:18 And when we get him on the pitch, he does some really good things.
07:21 He's an excellent player.
07:22 So, yeah, we'll get around him and he'll come back stronger.
07:24 Do you need to react to that in terms of recruitment now?
07:27 We've been proactive in terms of what that looks like.
07:30 It was quite a funny one for us.
07:33 I think by the time we got Tom's news, we'd just signed Alex.
07:35 And then 24 hours later, we sort of had our feet up on the table,
07:39 monitoring everything like we said we would do for the last two weeks.
07:41 And all of a sudden there's a change.
07:42 So, yeah, we're thankfully very, very proactive in the recruitment department.
07:46 And there's a lot of options.
07:49 I'm not talking about options to bring in, but there's options in terms of whether we do something or whether we don't.
07:54 Loans, permanence, all of those sort of things.
07:55 So we'll knuckle down now over the next few days, knock our heads together and decide if we want to do anything or not.
08:01 Cheers.
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