Pompey boss John Mousinho speaks to The News after the 3-0 defeat to West Brom.
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00:00A harsh scoreline on the performance today, but lessons to be learnt in ruthlessness as
00:10well?
00:11Yeah, I do think it's harsh, the scoreline. I don't think that was a particularly fair
00:16reflection of the game, particularly in the first half where I thought we were really
00:19good and we put West Brom under a lot of pressure. But like you say there, not clinical enough,
00:23not ruthless enough. When West Brom had the chances they put the ball in the back of the
00:26net and they made us suffer, they made us pay for the mistakes that we made and we
00:31couldn't quite do that to them. I think if we actually do put the ball in the back of
00:34the net and take a chance in the first half it's a very different game.
00:37The first half, a crackling atmosphere and probably as a response to the performance
00:43after falling behind after 54 seconds. But again, falling behind after 54 seconds then
00:47gives you a mountain to climb.
00:49Yeah, that would be the message is that don't wait until we do go a goal behind to click
00:53into life like we did. Really disappointing because of the way that we conceded the goal,
00:57the nature of it and how much it changed the game. It gave West Brom something to hold
01:01on to which they did really well. Defended the box brilliantly, the two centre-halves
01:04were outstanding. Again, it's another really good lesson. We spoke about furlong and the
01:12quick throws, the throws in behind in the week and sometimes even when you know what's
01:15coming it's difficult to stop it. But I still think the boys have got to do better and we've
01:18got to do better collectively to make sure that we stop that from happening.
01:21You really got after them with your press and Marlon was setting the tone as well. That
01:27was encouraging.
01:28Yeah, we pressed a lot higher than we have in previous weeks and we did that deliberately
01:33and that was something I thought we got a lot of joy from in the first half. Sometimes
01:36when you do that you're going to get picked off and there are going to be chances at the
01:39other end and that's fine, that's something we accept. But I think being aggressive on
01:43the press like we were really suited us.
01:46A moment of quality after the second half and West Brom showing their quality to shut
01:49the game down pretty well from there on.
01:51Yeah, and once that second goal went in I still thought if we managed to nick one it
01:55would have really changed the complexion of the last 10-15 minutes of the game. We didn't
01:58manage to do that. I feel a bit aggrieved by the third goal but apart from that I don't
02:04have too many complaints about how good West Brom were in the second half.
02:07Josh Murphy fans getting a sight of him today and he really had to really encourage that
02:11debut for Pompey.
02:12Yeah, I thought he was excellent. A constant threat on that left-hand side and I'm really
02:17pleased to have him back in a Portsmouth shirt. The only disappointment was that we had to
02:22manage him and bring him off after 60. We don't want to risk anything with Josh coming
02:25back from the injury and having been out for so long. Once we see more of him getting fitter
02:30and fitter I think there's plenty to come.
02:31He's obviously going to be a threat at Championship level and he showed a lot of indication of
02:36that today.
02:37Yeah, I thought he showed a huge amount going forward and did his job defensively really
02:43well too. There's loads more to come from Josh, that's the most exciting thing. I think
02:48he really is coming into the peak of his career. He's got himself in fantastic physical condition
02:52and he's got the quality to back it up as well.
02:54And Tom McIntyre, obviously it's been a long wait for him. Straight into the starting XI
02:59today.
03:00Yeah, Tom's been really good in training and brings a bit of Championship experience, a
03:03lot of composure and we thought it was the right thing to do to bring him in. I thought
03:07he was really good today and again we just managed Tom making sure that we didn't risk
03:10injury with him playing for too many minutes and we're really pleased with his contribution.
03:15So what was the thinking over that and then Rielly telling him he's missing out as a consequence?
03:19I just thought he was one of those where we needed that experience and Tom's got that.
03:27He's played 100 games in the Championship and I think Rielly can count himself unlucky
03:31to not find himself in the starting line-up but it was one of those things that we made
03:34the decision to do that and go from there.
03:36Conor Shockley, I see you're missing out today. Any social medias to believe? There's been
03:40a bust-up with yourself, can you shed any light on that?
03:42Yeah, a massive fight. We had a massive fight. It's all nonsense, there's no bust-up. I get
03:46on really well with Shocks and he's just struggling with the calf injury to get over it and we're
03:52frustrated, we're really frustrated and he's frustrated but it's one of those, it's an
03:56injury down at the bottom of the calf, the soleus and they can be really, really tricky
03:59for anyone that's ever had one of those. So we've got to get him right, we've got to make
04:02sure that he is right, he's such an important player for us. Even after the bust-up I still
04:07quite like him. We're just waiting for him to come back and we'll see very soon, there's
04:14nothing in that at all.
04:16He trained, he was obviously close, was it just kind of erring on the side of the course
04:19and for the longer term with Conor?
04:20Yeah, he just felt it towards the back end of training a little bit and then didn't train
04:26on Saturday so he didn't train yesterday and that's the, again, maybe one of those
04:31where 50-50 in a different game, last game of the season we play him but if we risk having
04:36him out for another six, seven weeks there's no point in doing that.
04:39And obviously a heartening and gladdening moment with Regan Poole out after ten months?
04:43Yeah, brilliant reception that Regan got. Regan's actually only played I think 15 games
04:47for the football club so to get that reception I think everybody knows the quality that he's
04:51got and what he's going to bring this season and once we've got him back in Boston with
04:55options at centre-half again, we play with that back four, I think it's going to really
04:59add to our squad.
05:00How long is it going to take for Regan to get back to approaching the level that we
05:03saw from him in his Pompey career so far?
05:05I don't know is the honest answer. When you come back from an ACL it can take its time
05:09but he's been out for a long time, he's been training for a long time and we'll see. I
05:13don't know how long it's going to take but hopefully it's very quick and we see him back
05:18in business really soon.
05:19I'm no expert in that field but I think the re-injury rate with ACLs is quite high isn't
05:22it so is that an indication that you've got to guard against those sort of problems?
05:26Yeah, that's why I think we've been very cautious with him. When you have the graft with essentially
05:32putting an artificial ACL into your knee, you have to make sure that the graft sets
05:36in before you can actually do anything and everything else around that then becomes a
05:40problem because of the loss of strength in the hamstring, the quad, the calf, etc. All
05:46these sort of things so we have to be cautious with him and make sure that he's right.
05:49Obein Bouat was having a scan this week, can you give us any update on that?
05:53Yeah, not good news unfortunately with Obein so he's ruptured his patella tendon, real
05:57freak one where he's gone to take a shot in a small-sided game and it's going to be probably
06:01about six months for Obein so we're all really gutted and he is as well.
06:04That's obviously for the supporters to hear that, they're going to be gutted as everyone
06:08is so how much of a blow is that for yourselves and for the lad?
06:11It's a massive blow for that to happen without him even setting foot on the football pitch
06:15for us. We're really devastated by it and unfortunately one of the things that happens
06:21in football just when we had most of our players back and we were looking a bit more healthy
06:25on the injury front that goes and happens so we'll review it as always and go from there.
06:29I guess the supporters perhaps a little bit on the outside they see the number of injuries
06:34and an injury of that and they look to reasons like to the pitch, they look to due diligence
06:39on players, can you just give an insight? I don't think there's a great deal of injury
06:42history for Obein for example and these things all get looked at.
06:46Yeah so with Obein he had a full season last year playing out in Austria, the season before
06:51a full season playing out in the Netherlands. No injury history or hardly any injury history
06:56at all, fine on the medical end and came in and had that freak injury on I think it must
07:01have been on Tuesday it happened so after a period of rest as well so yeah I don't really
07:06know we look into all of these things that's what I assure the fans I know there's a lot
07:10of frustration because they want to see players and it seems like we've got this sort of curse
07:13with injuries at the moment so yeah I really don't know but we are making sure that with
07:19every single injury we pick up and then look at the collectives that we do everything we
07:22possibly can to make sure players don't get injured.
07:24I guess if you look to the injuries now there's a sort of spate of hamstrings going you sort
07:28of say that you know it's not going to be answerable I think you've had like impact
07:31injuries and sort of unusual histories there's no real pattern I guess?
07:34No there isn't and that is a big thing for us when we the soft tissue injuries we do
07:40tend to look at with a bit more depth the contact injuries there's nothing you can do
07:43and I've been open about how I'd much rather we train with intensity rather than you know
07:49rather than knocks I think you need it you can see in Championship games you absolutely
07:52need intensity and you can't just switch it on and off in the week I think maybe the top
07:55lads can do that but certainly where we are at the moment I think we had a lot of success
08:00last year because of the way that we played and the intensity that we showed and if you
08:03look at the first half there you can't just go lads we're going to have a couple of sort
08:07of light sessions in the week and not tackle and not press and try and replicate what we
08:12did there so it's always a balance it's a fine balance that's ultimately what we've
08:16got to get right and we've got to do we've got to make sure we do get the right balance
08:19but yeah there's something we've got to think about.
08:22We've certainly seen that already this season it's going to be necessary to perform with
08:25that intensity from Leeds from day one onwards really haven't we?
08:29Yeah these are really good sides they're really good sides with really good athletes and we've
08:32got to step up to the plate and make sure we deliver as well.
08:35It's finally all harping on about injuries but Cassini Yenge was on the team list today
08:39wasn't he?
08:40Was there a late injury there?
08:41Yeah it probably sort of sums up our luck at the moment with Cass doing the full warm
08:45up and just feeling he's going towards the end and I don't know if that's about the travel
08:49or what it is but it was fine all week came back on Monday actually and yeah a late one
08:53where we had to take him off the team sheet.
08:54So is there any indication of extent of that yet?
08:57No none at all.
08:58All right cheers Jon.
08:59Thank you mate.