Pompey boss John Mousinho give his verdict on a huge win over Peterborough United in EFL League One.
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00:00 Here with Pompey boss John Massino. John, how did you feel at the end of that afternoon?
00:06 I felt relieved and elated. I think the final prevailing emotion, the final whistle was relief because of how difficult the game was, how difficult it was to prepare for, how good Peterborough are.
00:18 And then obviously elation to have won the game in the circumstances that we did because I thought especially in the second half the lads were superb.
00:25 Your approach to the game, to come here to such a ruthless attacking force and take the game to them with the way you set up, what was the thinking behind that first off?
00:36 The thinking was that you can sit off Peterborough and I've seen it multiple times this season because we've watched them quite a bit.
00:43 You can sit off them and they'll pick you off and they'll cause problems. You can go ultra aggressive and sometimes they'll pick you off and cause problems.
00:51 But probably, as we know since coming to the Football Club, we want to be aggressive, we want to be front-footed, we want to press sides and we thought we would win the ball back high up.
01:01 And if we left ourselves exposed at the back, then so be it because we think we've got good athletes and good defenders.
01:05 And at times it was like that, particularly with the wingers that Peterborough have got.
01:10 They're good players, they're really good players and they can cause you problems.
01:14 But we thought that was the best approach to press high up and I thought my only criticism of the first half was that when we did win the ball back high up, we just weren't quite ruthless enough.
01:24 We didn't create a huge amount of chances but we put ourselves in some really good positions and then where the cross wasn't there and we didn't get a shot off or we didn't get the extra pass in, I thought we were a bit sloppy when we won the ball back.
01:35 So I thought it was a completely different proposition in the second half. We pressed the same way but when we did win the ball I thought we showed a lot more quality.
01:42 And then you had to deal with issues in the game and reshuffles, it sounds like it's been that in the build-up to the game as well.
01:47 Yes, we had a couple of illnesses before the game so Paddy and Rassel were both due to start today.
01:52 Both fell ill last night and we checked on them this morning. Paddy was a bit worse than Joe so we sent Paddy home. There was no chance he was going to be able to be involved.
02:00 Joe, to be fair to him, wanted to soldier on and at least be available on the bench which was brilliant from our point of view.
02:07 We had to tell Zach and Jax-Parks that they were starting today and for us it was a reflection of how strong the squad is and how much faith we've got in these players.
02:18 To be honest, I thought those two players were two of the best in the pitch. I thought they were excellent.
02:23 Yes, let's follow up on that. Credit to those who got up against Pocchio and Mason-Clark, two of the outstanding wingers in this division if not the most outstanding.
02:30 And credit to them, how they performed, both of them.
02:33 Particularly because, like I mentioned there, we do want to press high and that leaves your full-backs 1v1 with the wingers a lot of the time.
02:39 I thought they were both outstanding. You look at moments in the game where both wingers are getting at the full-backs, they're 1v1, they're really dangerous going into the box.
02:50 I just thought both of them did it really, really well and they give us a lot in possession as well.
02:55 Jack in particular?
02:56 Yes, Jack's had that ankle injury that he picked up last week against Blackpool and for him to come in on late notice, I thought he kept Pocchio incredibly quiet. I'm really, really pleased for him.
03:12 And then Zach, obviously it's his first start since December, maybe Wimbledon is it? Off the top of their heads?
03:17 Yes, I think that's right because he had the surgery after the Wimbledon game and Zach's come back into things and he's not had the easiest of seasons for various reasons.
03:27 But we think we are extremely fortunate with the full-backs that we've got in the building, obviously Zach being one of them.
03:35 For him to come back in on such short notice and make his first start and get through 90 minutes without looking like he was tiring or blown up was brilliant.
03:43 It looked like Christian was sprinting back at full throttle, was that what did for him in that circumstance?
03:47 I think so. He felt his hamstring, it's the same injury that he had previously when he came off against Cambridge away from home, so it was a neural injury.
03:55 So it's not a hamstring tear but one of those things that feels like a tear so hopefully it's not going to keep him out for more than two weeks.
04:01 Obviously something he's got to get on top of but one of those annoying ones I think with Christian.
04:08 But first of all we had to protect him to make sure he doesn't turn into anything worse but also I think he felt it during the game so we wanted to make sure we had all players out there that were full-time and ready to go.
04:18 Seeing your Colby was a big talking point in the build-up to the game, what was your thinking behind that decision?
04:22 It was a tough one first of all, a really, really difficult choice. Obviously when the centre forward scores two goals on a Tuesday night to leave him out of the side on a Saturday I think is obviously a big call.
04:33 We thought that the game would suit Colby certainly in terms of getting up against Peter's two centre halves and it's a nice decision for me to be able to make when I leave Cass out and bring Colby Bishop in.
04:47 So I just thought, this is what I say to the two centre forwards because we have rotated them in the last few weeks, I'm just going to pick players that I think are going to suit the game.
04:55 I thought Cass would suit the game well on Tuesday night, I thought Colby would suit the game well today. So yes, it's a difficult one, it's not straightforward by any means, it gives us a real headache but for Cass to come in and do what he did as well was really pleasing.
05:08 Is that the mindset now for the final seven games, horses for courses, opposition, what works, will you pick those two?
05:14 I think so, yes. It has been throughout the season with every team selection that we make and that goes for every single position. We always try and pick what we think is going to suit the game best and Peterborough are a very different side to what we played last week,
05:29 Burson and Blackpool, so we do pick sides based on what we think is going to suit the game and I think you can only do that if you've got a good squad and you've got good players available and I do feel lucky to have them.
05:40 I'm absolutely sure you didn't feel like this but after the goal there wasn't a great deal, there was a ball that flashed in near Clark Harris towards the end but they saw it out pretty well.
05:48 Yes, you say that, I obviously was nervous about the outcome of the game but I did feel a lot more comfortable in terms of the way we saw the game out. I felt a lot more comfortable in the second half than I did in the first half.
06:01 I thought we made a couple of mistakes in the first half, our decision making wasn't quite there, we didn't land on enough second balls and that's a bit of an intangible but I thought we did in the second half, we started to land on second balls.
06:14 If we went longer we picked up the seconds and we recycled from there because otherwise you leave yourself exposed. I thought it was a really good game of football and end-to-end at times, the two sides that were going at it.
06:24 I felt relatively comfortable towards the end, as comfortable as you can be away from home against a team that are in such a big tie but I'm really pleased with how we saw the game out.
06:34 Miles, Peter Harris has called up for Jamaica at age group level?
06:38 Yes, so that's the Jamaica 23s, that was the call came, we got the call on Wednesday afternoon so we were fully expecting the party game to go ahead.
06:45 We got the call on Wednesday afternoon and we were losing three players at that point, we decided once we did all the requisite paperwork with the EFL that we were going to call the game off.
06:56 I understand the frustration of the fans because they spent a huge amount of money making sure they could attend the games but it's one of those things that was completely out of the club's hands.
07:06 Even going into Friday, if Miles hadn't been called up, going to Friday where Abu was on the standby for England under-20s, if he'd been called up to the full squad it would have been a Friday cancellation.
07:19 It's one of those things that is a bit frustrating for everyone involved but rest assured the club will do everything they possibly can to let the fans know as soon as possible.
07:27 I caveat this with the context, it can't seem to go a week without picking up an injury but is it perhaps good news in the context of the season that you might be able to get a couple back by the time you play Barnsley?
07:37 Yes, I think so. It feels like it's come at a good time. It felt like that before the game and regardless of the result, I thought, you know what, you've won the game, sometimes you want to keep a bit of momentum but I think at this stage of the season it's the perfect time.
07:49 Hopefully we'll have a couple more players back, we've got the illnesses that I think we're going to get back on track and obviously with Paddy and Rash they'll be fine in a couple of weeks' time.
07:57 I think Christian should be okay as well so I think it's come at a perfect time.
08:00 How big a moment is this in the context of the season? Can you allow yourself to enjoy the moment just a little bit?
08:07 I think we should, yes, we should definitely enjoy the moment. If you can't enjoy that then you're in the wrong game. To be able to do that off the back of a really difficult week going away to Blackpool and the game on Tuesday night that ended really intensely and to come away here and I've said it in the pre-match, I do think people were certainly one of the best sides in the league.
08:29 The amount of damage they can cause if you haven't got things right, I think we definitely should enjoy it and hopefully roll on to a nice Easter weekend.
08:36 Just because they're wearing derby, you've obviously picked up a win but it's that gap to nine points which is obviously a positive at this stage of the season.
08:42 Yes, I haven't properly seen the league table. A couple of people shouted results at me but the most important thing for us today, genuinely, is to take care of this result and make sure that we're on top of ourselves. That's all we can do between now and the end of the season is make sure we take care of what we can take care of and hopefully everything will be sorted off the back of that.
09:01 Just finally, sorry I must say, 4,000 strong Travelling Army made it home game. A word for them as well please.
09:07 Yes, I came out in the warm-up and for anyone that was here, it was a sort of raucous atmosphere in the warm-up. We always come out and just have a look at a few bits.
09:18 John and I spoke before we went in and spoke to the players and thought that's summer atmosphere. I've played a lot of football games, I've been to a lot of football games.
09:27 I do genuinely think, I'm not just saying this for the sake of it, I think that was probably the best away atmosphere I've ever experienced in football. I can't think of many better than that. Obviously, it helps that we won the game but that was absolutely superb.
09:38 Cheers.