Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his Northampton Town preview, as well as an update on Colby Bishop's fitness and all the other big talking points.
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00:00 So Jon, obviously Northampton away at the weekend but first we should start on
00:04 Colby Bishop, that's the news everyone wants to hear. What's the situation with him at the moment please?
00:08 Yes, so obviously Colby went over on his ankle in the first half, right at the back end of the first half, right in front of the bench.
00:13 I saw it at the time, I saw him, I mean I saw the sort of ankle, right angle underneath him, you can see it really clearly on the footage.
00:21 So the initial thought was to protect him, make sure he doesn't put any weight on the ankle, get him in the boot and the crutches
00:27 and then we are scanning him today just to see the severity of the damage.
00:31 We're hoping it's not too bad, sometimes those ones you can get away with it, sometimes they're a bit worse.
00:37 We've had a couple of ankle injuries this season, Cassini, Marlon Pack, Connor Ogilvie for example,
00:42 but yes we are hoping that this one is okay, it's just one we've got to monitor over the next couple of days, get the scan results and go from there.
00:48 We've seen him today at the training ground, he's not on crutches, he's not got a boot on, so is that reason to be a little bit encouraged or not?
00:54 Yes, I think we put him in crutches and a boot as an extra precaution on Tuesday, so we were always expecting him to be out of that by today.
01:03 Even in Marlon's case, quite early on he was out of the boot and crutches.
01:08 So yes, I think it's better news than him still not being able to weight bear, but until we get the scan results we don't know what sort of damage has been done in there.
01:15 Yes, we have to just wait and see with that one.
01:17 What sort of spirits is he in?
01:19 Yes, Colby is positive, he's a very positive character anyway, he was down the other night, he's played almost every minute of every league game so far,
01:27 he got his 11th league goal in 18, which is a great return and he's obviously hungry to play, hungry to score goals, hungry to contribute for us to win,
01:37 so he was disappointed the other night, but I think he's back at it today and he knows he's going to come back nice and strong.
01:43 So without Colby Bishop on his side, you've got that rare decision, who goes up front? How do you work around that?
01:49 Well I think the most important thing that we've got is options, so we have options in the building.
01:55 One of the reasons that we wanted to just take our time at half-time was to assess what we wanted to do,
01:59 and we thought that Christian was playing well enough in the 10, we didn't want to disrupt him there,
02:04 and we thought it was a game that would really suit Cassini.
02:06 It turned out I think it did in the end, the space opened up, he was probably unlucky not to get his goal as well in the second half.
02:12 So the most important thing for us is that we're not hamstrung in terms of options at the moment,
02:16 we do have two centre-forwards in the building who can both play there and have both played there really well,
02:21 if not this season in Christian's case, but certainly in his career in the past.
02:26 So a good thing for us to do under bad circumstances, Christian and Cassini both competing for that spot
02:33 and plenty of others underneath that are willing to support them.
02:35 You've rarely played Christian as a main centre-forward though, is he still a consideration for that role?
02:42 I think his position still is that he's a number nine, and one of the things that has just happened this season naturally
02:47 is that ever since the first game of the year against Bristol Rovers where he came on as a 10 at half-time and did so well,
02:52 that's where he's probably had the most impact at the moment,
02:54 and it's a difficult one in this squad to be able to try and get in ahead of Kolbe.
02:58 He plays pretty much, well he's started every single league game, he's played almost every minute of every league game,
03:03 Bayern I think the other night and maybe 15 minutes against Leipzig and Orient and then against Blackpool as well.
03:09 So one of those things where it is quite tough and Christian's adapted really well to playing in a different slot
03:14 and I thought he was really effective the other night, I thought he held the ball up pretty well
03:17 and for the second goal he was instrumental so it was very, very nice to see him adjust to something a bit different.
03:22 Cassini as well, he seems a more natural choice to replace Kolbe.
03:26 Yeah, Cassini's a natural number nine, he's a different player to Kolbe, he stretches the game,
03:32 he certainly has some attributes that set him apart from a lot of centre-forwards at this level,
03:40 so I think it's a good opportunity for him the other night to come in and make an impact
03:44 and I thought in fairness he did, if you consider that Cassini has hardly played a league minute
03:49 despite scoring quite a few goals, I think he played for half an hour at the weekend,
03:53 that was the longest he's ever played in the league for us in one stint
03:56 and then he got 45 minutes on Tuesday so it's a really nice progress for him from Saturday to Tuesday.
04:01 Onwards and possibly a really good opportunity for him to take his place in the side.
04:05 Can you score goals without Kolbe this year?
04:07 I think we're going to have to and the answer in the second half was yes,
04:12 we managed to score without Kolbe, I thought we managed to create without Kolbe as well
04:16 and we have to make sure that we get bodies in the box and we keep creating chances for as many players as possible
04:22 and one of the things that we're trying to do is make sure that we contribute across the board a bit more.
04:27 We all heard from Alex Robertson the other night, it's something he's really been trying to put into his game as well
04:32 and the more goals we can get from the likes of Alex, Christian needs to pop up with a few,
04:37 if we can get goals from the wingers as well and support whoever is playing as a centre forward then we'll be in business.
04:42 You've been playing Sadie behind Bishop, can he play behind Youngie as well from the start?
04:46 Yeah, I don't see why not, that's obviously how we went about our business in the second half
04:50 and I thought we looked quite dangerous on the counter attack
04:53 and the only disappointment in the second half was how we started the game and I think it was nothing to do with
04:57 Cassini and their positioning up front, I thought it was just the fact that we got a bit sloppy
05:01 and we made a couple of strange decisions so yeah, I certainly think they'll be able to do it.
05:06 They have done it in quite a few games previously as well, particularly the cup games,
05:10 just a couple that spring to mind, they both did it against Forest Green where Cassini scored two.
05:14 I think they've done it in quite a few of the EFL and other games as well, so Late in Orient was another one.
05:20 So yeah, there you go, they definitely can.
05:23 In terms of Northampton, you bounced back perfect style really on Tuesday night against Burton,
05:28 what are you looking for in Northampton?
05:30 We want to continue a bit of momentum from what we built on Tuesday night,
05:33 it was a good test for the lads and a difficult place to go on a Tuesday night
05:36 so what we want to make sure is that we keep the momentum going and we take the positives of Tuesday
05:41 into training today, tomorrow and into the game and obviously tighten up on a few of those areas
05:46 that I still think we need to improve upon.
05:48 It wasn't a perfect performance by any means the other night but it was decent enough,
05:50 it was nice and solid so we've got to make sure that we take those into what's going to be a tough game
05:54 at the weekend against Sociedad in good form.
05:56 In terms of injuries, what other injuries have you?
05:59 Yeah, we're all clear apart from Colby's injury so everybody else came through with a clean bill of health
06:04 and then the other positive bit of news is that Tom Lowry travelled with the squad on Tuesday night,
06:08 he was the 19th man, it was probably a game or two too soon for him in terms of being involved in the squad
06:13 but it was nice to have him back around, we want to get him back involved in the squad, involved in the group.
06:18 He did a session on the pitch beforehand just to make sure that he's here with us rather than being back
06:22 at the training ground on his own and we had him in full training today and it's looking very, very close
06:27 for him to be back and available for full selection.
06:29 What about Zach Swanson?
06:31 Yeah, Zach Swanson's back as well and Zach's scan came back, there was a bit of bone bruising there
06:36 so understandable in terms of the symptoms but I think it was just a strange one in terms of how he got it,
06:43 he couldn't remember taking a whack but he must have taken a whack at some point in training
06:45 and it bothered him the next day and he wasn't able to weight bear for a couple of days
06:49 but one of those that's improved really nicely so Zach's trained today, he'll be available for the weekend as well.
06:54 So bone bruising looks after itself after a little while?
06:57 It's a strange one, yeah, so bone bruising, again I'm not particularly qualified but bone bruising,
07:03 the minute you realise it's bone bruising it's not something that's doing any more damage,
07:07 you realise you can get on with it, I guess it's sometimes like the difference between cramping up
07:12 and tearing a muscle, if you know it's cramping you're alright, you can carry on, if you tear a muscle
07:15 then you're in trouble but the feeling's exactly the same.
07:18 So he's okay then now?
07:19 He's okay, trained today, yeah.
07:20 And Gavin White as well?
07:21 Gavin's back, yeah, Gavin came back in on Tuesday, didn't travel with the squad but came back on Tuesday,
07:28 everything resolved on his end which is great, we were in constant contact over the weekend
07:33 and he came back on Tuesday, did a session yesterday and fully trained with the lads today
07:36 so yeah a bit of bright news with the three of those players coming back and looking to bolster the squad
07:43 going into the weekend.
07:44 With Gavin, you've mentioned about his family issues, what's his state of mind at the moment?
07:48 I think he's really really positive, trying to come back into the fold and affect things,
07:52 he obviously didn't want to miss the game last weekend, it was a game where he may have
07:56 definitely affected the squad if not the starting line-up so I think he's just really pleased to get back out there,
08:04 one of those things, these things happen in life and you have to deal with them, you have to get on with them
08:08 and Gavin's made sure he's kept his head down, he's a professional, I think he's just really really looking forward
08:13 to getting back out there and he enjoyed training today and I'm sure he's going to relish getting up to Northampton
08:17 at the weekend.
08:18 So you've got a couple of players back in the squad now?
08:20 Yeah it's nice, one of the positive things throughout this tricky period has been the fact that we've always had
08:27 18 pros to choose from in terms of squad selection, even the other night we travelled with 19,
08:33 it wasn't quite right for Tom to be on the bench and we had Denver I think coming in for one of the first times,
08:38 it's quite nice to be able to do that and we spoke highly of Denver in terms of what he did when he came in against
08:43 Leighton Orie and again we wouldn't have him on the bench unless he'd done as well as he's done in training
08:47 and kept his head down and was ready to impact again.
08:50 So it seems a bit better now, we've had a lot of periods this season where I've left three and four people out of the squad
08:56 and it's been really really difficult and recently it's not quite been that and you just go through those peaks and troughs
09:01 through the season, we've still got a couple of long term injuries out but hopefully we can get back to a stage
09:06 where it's not particularly easy for me but we can leave three, four, five players out of the squad and we're in a really good spot.
09:11 Thank you very much.