Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his view on the Charlton Athletic on Saturday and all the other talking points from Fratton Park.
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00:00 So Jon, looking to Charlton this weekend, how do you see this match?
00:04 I think an exciting match, football against two sides who are certainly competing to try
00:09 and get out of the league and both with real rich histories in the past few years, recent
00:15 Premier League clubs. I know none of that really comes into account on the pitch on
00:20 Saturday but I think it just heightens everything in terms of the expectation around the fixture,
00:24 the amount of fans that we're going to have there and then if you look at what's going
00:27 to go on the pitch in terms of what I do expect Charlton to bring, I think they're a really
00:31 good footballing side since Michael's gone in. Particularly they've played some really
00:34 good stuff, scored quite a lot of goals, I think as many goals as us in the league this
00:37 year and they've got some really good attacking threats in the side so very, very well coached.
00:42 They're going to be a decent threat and I think the whole occasion will be a good one.
00:46 I'm not sure how familiar you are but you've probably got an awful home record against
00:49 Charlton. Are you a superstitious person?
00:53 I am a superstitious person but I don't see this one as superstition, it's just the history
00:56 of books, it's what's happened in the past. Interestingly enough I did watch the game
01:02 last year when Portsmouth lost at home to Charlton, I think it was 3-1 in the lead up
01:07 to taking the job and obviously I saw at the time what the difference in between the two
01:13 sides were but as we stand now, just two completely different sides, different personnel, two
01:17 different head coaches, everything about this fixture is very, very different I think from
01:21 what it was last year and I'm sure everybody's feeling that as well. The past is the past
01:26 in terms of, certainly from our perspective, if we'd have beaten Charlton 12 times in a
01:30 row I'm not sitting here thinking 'oh that's great news for us, it doesn't mean anything
01:34 to us whatsoever' so from the opposite side of the coin, like I said there, it just doesn't
01:40 matter at all.
01:41 Do you believe in bogus sides and that sort of thing?
01:43 No, absolutely not because I genuinely don't think it matters. What relevance to Charlton's
01:50 side last year or the year before have to this fixture, absolutely none whatsoever I
01:54 think. So yeah, it's not anything I think we're concerned about. The only thing we're
01:58 concerned about is the current Charlton side and they pose a real threat and we've got
02:02 to make sure we are at the top of our game to make sure we deal with that.
02:05 What do you make of Charlton since Michael Afton came in?
02:08 Yeah, I mean they've improved, they've scored quite a few goals anyway throughout the season
02:13 but they've continued to score quite a few goals and they've picked up a couple of really
02:17 good results recently. If you look at the last league game where they played Wigan
02:21 on a Tuesday night, they went up there and stormed into a 3-0 lead away from home on
02:24 a Tuesday night and they ended up winning the game I think 3-2. We're all familiar with
02:29 that sort of tale, having done that ourselves this season. So they play really good football,
02:35 Michael Afton's side always have done and he's had success at this level as well so
02:38 we've got to expect that they're going to come here with a solid game plan and they're
02:42 going to try and play a bit of football as well.
02:44 In terms of Pompey at the moment, how are you shaping up?
02:46 Yeah, we're shaping up okay. From the other night we've got no new injury concerns which
02:50 is a real positive and then we're going to welcome one new face back to availability
02:56 for selection this weekend in Marlon and that's a real boost for us I think, having him back
03:02 over the past 10 days in full training. It's been a slow build since that Wigan game and
03:07 yeah very nice to have him back in the fold.
03:09 Is Marlon a realistic contender for the starting XI?
03:12 Yeah absolutely, we want to make sure that when players are back in full training that
03:17 if we do have them back in full training we obviously monitor match fitness but there's
03:20 no reason why Marlon couldn't start the game at the weekend.
03:23 So that's good news. What about Regan Paul and his scan?
03:26 Yeah, Regan Paul's scan, so he had his scan yesterday up in London, we're just waiting
03:29 for the results now. Sometimes they're not the quickest but we should have them this
03:33 afternoon or the latest tomorrow so I'll catch up with Steve after this and yeah we obviously
03:38 want to see what the results are and yeah as quickly as possible find out what's up
03:42 with Regan.
03:43 Is he a contender for Saturday?
03:44 He's unlikely at the moment, I think unless the result comes back and it's pretty conclusive
03:49 that he's okay he's nowhere near 100% so at the minute we'd probably say that Regan's
03:54 ruled out but yeah we'll have to see how he is tomorrow.
03:56 So what is his injury?
03:57 Oh we don't know, it's very difficult to tell with the knee yet and what the extent
04:04 of the damage is so yeah we'll have a, it's definitely his knee so the scan is the reason.
04:09 With things like hamstring tears you know it's a hamstring tear, it's really simple,
04:13 straightforward, so many structures in the knee I think it's better just to wait and
04:15 see what the scan says.
04:16 And Tino, last time we spoke to you you were waiting for the results?
04:19 Yeah so Tino's scan results came back, we managed to get them yesterday, not the best
04:23 news probably slightly worse in terms of the hamstring tear that we knew was going to be
04:27 a hamstring tear so slightly worse in terms of how bad it was.
04:30 So we're looking at sort of eight weeks plus at the moment on that, at the minute we don't
04:34 want to put a definite timescale on it because we're going to get a second opinion, we're
04:38 going to send everything back to Chelsea, Chelsea will decide what to do with it from
04:41 that point onwards and we'll really be guided by them so we've got a bit of information
04:46 in our hands at the moment, Tino's still in with us, he was in today and yeah we'll
04:49 take it from there but not the best news but you know it's one of those things we have
04:53 to deal with.
04:54 What grade is it?
04:55 I couldn't tell you off the top of my head but it's not great.
04:59 So before you were saying six or eight weeks, now you think it's more than eight weeks?
05:04 Probably eight weeks plus at the moment yeah but we do have to see, just get someone to
05:07 read the scan a second time and sometimes with these things you know it's best just
05:12 to take a minute and make sure we get the rehab plan right and probably as well not
05:17 put a definitive timescale on it towards the back end, some injuries are really easy to
05:21 go okay this is a six to eight weeker so I think it's fair to say eight weeks plus and
05:24 we'll see how Tino works throughout that.
05:27 And no fresh injuries at all?
05:29 No fresh injuries from the other night, clean bill of health which was really positive news,
05:33 obviously considering we played the game for such long periods with ten men, a couple of
05:37 the lads had to go again from the weekend, obviously Sean did but Sean didn't play a
05:40 huge amount and Gavin was the other one who played the majority of the game on Sunday
05:44 and the majority of the game again on Tuesday but both have come through fine and so really
05:48 pleasing for that.
05:49 And the team sheet will be written correctly this week?
05:51 I hope the team sheet will be written correctly and if it's not it's obviously Neil's fault
05:56 so yeah, I guess I'm using in hindsight a bit frustrating at the time but yeah you go
06:04 through football for, everybody here has been in football for a long time and you think
06:08 you've seen everything and that was a first for me.
06:10 Thank you.