Pompey boss John Mousinho discusses Oxford United's visit in EFL League One on Saturday, as well as all the promotion and injury talking points.
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00:00 Good job we're live now. Anyway we can smile today after Tuesday night's football
00:13 results a lot of Pobbey fans paid attention to those. Did you follow them?
00:19 Yeah I was at a game last night and obviously had the phone on just looking through the results.
00:24 The truth is that regardless of what day of the week it is I've got my life score
00:29 wrap on and I'm always checking results because I just love football and it doesn't matter
00:33 if it's National League or Premier League I've got real interest in it and obviously
00:36 when it's our league I think we take a bit of an added interest. So there was nothing
00:39 we could do about last night's results as there's nothing we could do about the rest
00:43 of the results for the rest of the season with all those other sides and it was one
00:46 of those that we had a look at and we've got to move on, nice little bonus and then move
00:50 on to the weekend because the most important thing is how we perform and the result against Oxford.
00:55 Those results though, changed the table a little?
00:58 Yeah but again nothing that we can do about that. I think the main focus for us is obviously
01:04 just to go and put in what we know we can put in at the weekend and anything else. We're
01:09 not going to sit here and say that we don't look at everything else around the league
01:11 because we always do whether that's on a Tuesday night that we haven't got a game or after
01:15 a game on a Saturday because of course it's of massive interest to us at the moment but
01:19 trying to take out things and make sure things don't affect us too much whether it's a win
01:24 or a loss or a draw for one of our rivals and making sure we just keep focused and make
01:29 sure we're on to the next game for ourselves.
01:31 The last seven or eight games you've just kicked into a few gears again haven't you?
01:37 You've seen rubble forward.
01:39 It's been really positive I think in terms of the results and the performances for the
01:42 most part for the eight games have been really good as well and I think a lot of it's down
01:46 to the fact that we took a long hard look at ourselves after League and Orient. We were
01:49 still in a fantastic league position and we've done a huge amount of work in the season to
01:53 put ourselves there but I thought we probably dropped off a bit over Christmas and that
01:57 culminated in losing at home to Orient and that was one for me that I think if you look
02:01 at other losses through the season I can take Cheltenham, I can take Bristol Rovers because
02:05 I thought we played well on the day. Blackpool to a certain extent because of the sending
02:10 off and everything that surrounded that day being our first loss for quite a long time
02:15 but Orient for me I thought and Orient for the squad there was no one that was disagreeing
02:19 with the staff's assessment that was unacceptable on the day and we addressed what we thought
02:22 we needed to get better at and for the most part I think we've done that really well over
02:25 the last eight games. So I think the key is now that we have to make sure that we kick
02:29 on and we improve again and we don't look at ourselves over the last eight games and
02:32 pat ourselves on the back and think oh isn't that brilliant, haven't we done well, we've
02:35 got to make sure that we're fully focused on Oxford and then obviously after that the
02:40 remaining ten games. Was Orient the lowest point for you this season? It's a good question,
02:46 it probably was because it was the one time that I really did look at it and I think I
02:51 was honest in the post-match after those Cheltenham and Bristol Rovers games I thought we actually
02:57 deserved to win both of those games so I can certainly live with performance levels that
03:02 we put in that day and I can live with the fact that we put in the effort that I think
03:06 was required and if not the quality to win games at this level and it seemed we dipped
03:12 below that against Leighton. I think for a number of reasons, we were probably a bit
03:15 tired and jaded after a busy Christmas period, things didn't go well for us on the day, we
03:19 missed a penalty at a difficult time but that was a wake-up call I think for the squad because
03:24 we knew at that point that sides are getting better, sides like Leighton are going to get
03:29 better, there are sides mounting challenges for play-off spots, every side now pretty
03:33 much in the league has got something to play for which makes it really interesting whether
03:37 you're at home or away and we needed to make sure that we just didn't put in that sort
03:40 of performance again and every week now we're really wary of making sure we do focus on
03:45 the positives but we've always got one thought in the back of our mind that we have to make
03:48 sure it doesn't happen again.
03:50 From memory you had quite a long chat in the dressing room afterwards as well.
03:54 Yeah we did and it wasn't, sometimes in the past I think I've been involved in sides
04:00 and you wait for things to go completely wrong before you have a long chat and a sit-down
04:05 and crisis talks and it was nothing like that, it was just making sure that we acknowledged
04:09 the fact that we were in a fantastic position still in the league at that point, we were
04:13 still top and we'd done plenty of work to put ourselves there and deserved to be top
04:17 and that was something I just wanted to make sure that the lads grasped and they knew they
04:21 weren't going to give away too easily and that was my only prevailing thought later
04:25 on, I thought we just gave the game away a bit too easily without a huge amount of fire.
04:29 So it was a really good one for me because I've sat in plenty of those and not really
04:33 thought, I agreed with what everyone said in the room but everyone was on the same page,
04:36 everyone knew that they needed to do a lot more and thankfully over the last few games
04:39 I've done that.
04:40 And yeah, the reaction since has been superb.
04:42 Yeah the reaction's been great and what we want to make sure we do and it's a real trick
04:46 is make sure there isn't a reaction needed for the rest of the season, we sort of go
04:50 into every game being really proactive and try and stay on top of ourselves and that's
04:53 difficult, I think it's difficult through a 46 game season but I think that's the key
04:57 to trying to have any sort of success.
04:59 And is it the consistency for you that you're pleased with since that game?
05:02 A number of things I think, I think the consistency, the fact that I do look at those games and
05:06 I thought that a draw was probably a fair result of the weekend but apart from that
05:11 I thought we deserved to win all of the other games that we played in, even the Oxford game
05:15 I did think we deserved to win that on the performance of the night, we were just really
05:19 sloppy in the way we shut the game out but every other game by and large I thought we
05:23 controlled, I thought we played well, really important for us and I know it's a bit of
05:27 a cliche but really important for us over those games as well I thought our intensity
05:30 and the way that we ran and the way that we went about our business just from a physical
05:34 standpoint was really good and that's just the basics we should definitely expect from
05:39 any football side, especially when you're playing for Portsmouth but sometimes those
05:42 things are lacking so I'm really, really pleased.
05:44 There was a time Oxford were genuine promotion rivals to Pompey, that's not quite turned
05:49 out is it?
05:50 You know there's still a really good side, they've got pretty much all of the players
05:54 that they had at the start of the season, they've picked up quite a few injuries to
05:57 be fair to them so possibly struggling to replace a few of those bigger names that they
06:02 had at the start of the season that were really flying and that's always going to be difficult
06:05 I think for any squad to be able to do and Oxford have gone and strengthened in January,
06:09 there's always that disruption of the managerial change as well and that's something obviously
06:14 the whole football club has had to deal with but still a real threat on their day and that's
06:18 something we have to be really wary of, a side that is still very, very capable of going
06:22 and winning games at home or away and we've got to make sure that we're on top of that
06:25 because they've got a side full of really good players, most of them that I know about
06:29 and I think in fairness to Desi he's kept going really well with the side of coach,
06:34 they're playing some really good football, probably been a bit unlucky over the past
06:36 few weeks as well so yeah we do expect a tough game.
06:39 Because at the time they were very strong weren't they as well?
06:41 Yeah and you know, no bones about it, they're still a very strong side and watching them
06:46 the other night they were really unlucky to only take one point against Northampton having
06:50 controlled it for large parts of the game and they were winning 2-1 towards the latter
06:53 stages, they went 1-0 up against Leighton Orient and controlled the first half of the
06:58 weekend so yeah still a really strong side and I think that they certainly may have dropped
07:03 off in terms of league position but we have to be very wary of them and we found that
07:06 out the other month when we played them and had a really tough game at the Cassano.
07:09 Where do you think they'll finish?
07:10 Who knows, that's one thing that is beyond where we need to be concerned about, the only
07:15 thing that we have to concern ourselves with is where we finish and whatever Oxford do
07:19 that's obviously up to them, the biggest thing for us is the game of the weekend and
07:23 that's what we've got to take care of.
07:24 They've still got some talented players there, do you think they can get top six still?
07:27 They've got talent across the pitch and I think if you look at any of the sides in
07:33 and around the play-off positions all the way down to, I'm not entirely sure what the
07:40 actual calf weights the Cubs have considered themselves maybe out of the play-off race
07:43 but there's plenty in it, I went to the Leighton Orient Blackpool game last night, definitely
07:47 both sides that are going to be pushing for play-off spots and I think both sides find
07:51 themselves below Oxford at the minute so I'm sure Oxford are looking to try and get into
07:54 the play-offs.
07:55 In terms of injuries, anything new?
07:57 No, no new injuries, we've got the same squad to select from that we had at the weekend,
08:01 the one bit of positive injury news from our point of view is the fact that Zac trained
08:05 with us this morning, didn't do a full training session with the first team but a re-introduction
08:09 so it's the first time he's been back out on the grass with his boots on with the first
08:12 team and hopefully we can get him involved a bit more on Friday and build him up to a
08:16 full training session next week.
08:17 And Connor Ogilvie?
08:18 Connor's fine, he's got to pass an independent test on Friday, we want to make sure we do
08:23 the right thing by Connor and make sure everything's fine but we know it wasn't a concussion at
08:29 the weekend but we still have to go through the same protocols that we would always go
08:32 through and we've been vigilant on that.
08:34 Connor's been out, he's not been doing the full training sessions with us just because
08:38 we're making sure we protect him but the club doctor's been in Monday and Tuesday just making
08:43 sure everything's alright and we expect Connor to be fit for the weekend.
08:46 So that's standard protocol?
08:47 Yes, standard protocol, it's the right thing to do just to make sure that with those head
08:51 injuries that everything is spot on before players go back in and put themselves at risk.
08:56 So what does an independent test entail?
08:58 I have no idea!
09:00 I have no idea but Steve assures me that we're going to get one done.
09:04 I think it's just to make sure there's no club bias on it and that's absolutely fine
09:07 so that we can't pressure Connor into playing or the club can't pressure Connor into playing
09:11 if there's something that's amiss so someone else will independently assess him, make sure
09:15 he's good to go and give us the green light hopefully and if not we'll expect that.
09:19 And if he gets a green light?
09:21 If he gets a green light he's available for selection, yeah.
09:24 And Sean is here as well obviously with his nose.
09:28 Yeah so Sean came in on Monday with two black eyes and a cut on his nose but he is fine,
09:35 he looks a lot worse than he is but he's absolutely fine, he's been training fully with us and
09:39 I think yeah just the unfortunate recipient of the back of Marlon Pack's head.
09:43 Thank you very much.