Pompey head coach John Mousinho speaks to the press ahead of Preston encounter
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00:00that we saw away at Home Park, how disheartening is it that we didn't come away with anything?
00:05I think disappointing, definitely disappointing. I don't think too disheartening because of
00:11the fact the performance was so good. There was a lot of positivity when we returned home
00:16last night. I feel pretty positive this morning, but realistic about where we are and realistic
00:21about the position and the fact that we didn't win the game. But a marked difference between
00:25when we've been sat here on previous Wednesday mornings after some really, really poor performances,
00:28scratching our heads about why the lads didn't look like they were running, didn't look like
00:32they were motivated, didn't look like they had enough in certain moments. We did all
00:37of those things really well. In the moment we conceded the goal, we've got to be better,
00:40we've got to be a lot better than that. But apart from that, I'm just really pleased with
00:42the performance.
00:43And we had plenty of chances in that final third, but we just couldn't seem to get the
00:46ball in the back of the net. Do you have a reason as to why?
00:52Not really. I think our finishing's got to be a bit more clinical. From the very, very
00:57first minute, I know we have the disallowed goal, but we should probably score from the
01:00cutback anyway. The goalkeeper makes a good save. I know it's on Conor Ogilvie's right
01:03foot, but Conor's one of the players that pops up in the box and scores a lot of those
01:06goals. And it's similar with the weekend really, where we've had that chance at the end and
01:11double chance, first of all, with Murph going through, then it falls to Lange. I don't see
01:16a lack of confidence in the boys in terms of their finishing, to be honest. Maybe that's
01:20wrong of me, but I just think that we're just not quite there. There's a final percentage
01:25that we need to do a bit better at, and that's just going to be probably a bit about desire
01:31going into the weekend to get into the box and to put the final touch into things.
01:35Matt Ritchie's first back-to-back game for him for three years. How much progress has
01:40he made since joining in the summer?
01:42I think if we had this conversation this time last week and we were talking about how close
01:48Matt is to a start, that was a debate. We were talking about whether he's ready to start
01:52or not now. The big debate for us is whether he's ready to start three games in a week
01:57because his performance has obviously been so high, but we also want to make sure that
02:00we don't overly expose him to an injury. So, he's been excellent coming into the side.
02:06The energy that he provides, the leadership and the quality on the ball that he's starting
02:10to show as well. I think that's a big area of his game that we knew we had, but I think
02:14just getting up to the pace of the game and getting up to the level with the quality that
02:17he shows is something that, once we get him a full tilt, is going to be even better. So,
02:21really pleased from that.
02:22And apart from Jordan Williams coming off, is everyone else in fit health that we're aware of?
02:27Yeah, everything's fine from last night, so no reports. The lads are going to report back
02:31in this afternoon, so we'll see a bit more then, but at the minute, just Jordan to be
02:35concerned about.
02:36And another strong following again from the Pompey fans. They've been incredible at away
02:40games all season. How important is it that we bring that energy to Fratton Park on Saturday?
02:44Yeah, I know we will. We've brought that energy to Fratton Park off the back of some really
02:49poor performances and losses, so I know that it's going to be there at the weekend. And
02:53that was a tough week. That was a tough travel week, I think, for the fans to go from Portsmouth
02:58to Hull, first of all, on Friday and Saturday, and then to dust themselves off and go again
03:03on Monday or Tuesday, whenever they travel. That's a huge, huge effort. So, hopefully,
03:08for most of them, it's going to be a short trip to Fratton Park. I know some do travel
03:13from afar and, yeah, we can hopefully reward them with three points.
03:17We're now a quarter of the way through the season. Is it too soon to say that Saturday
03:21against Preston could be a must-win and three points?
03:24They all feel like must-wins, to be honest. I spoke to you guys after the build-up to
03:31the Oxford game. The Oxford game felt like a must-win. We didn't win the game. It's not
03:34been a disaster for the season. We could have done with the points, but it's not the end
03:37of the world. It probably felt like a must-win last night. We didn't win the game. We're
03:43not in a horrendous position. We're not in the position we want to be, but by no means
03:47are we a couple of good wins away from actually getting ourselves in a decent enough spot.
03:51We've got to win those games, but every game we approach, we approach it as a must-win.
03:56And despite Preston's position in the league table, how much of a challenge do you reckon
04:00it's going to be on Saturday?
04:01I mean, Preston are a really well-established championship team and I think under Paul,
04:05who clearly knows what he's doing, having got a side, the Sheffield United side, really,
04:11really well promoted out of the league a couple of years ago, knows what he's doing
04:15with some really good players there. And I think it's definitely going to be a tough
04:19test. I know Preston haven't got the results they'd have wanted to get, but we've seen
04:22plenty enough of them so far to know they're a good side.
04:27Is it fair to say that it's your best performance of the season, apart from obviously the finishing?
04:31I think over the 90 minutes, yeah. I think over the 90 minutes. I think we've put in
04:35some really good performances. I think if you look at the likes of Burnley away, I thought
04:41that was an excellent performance, but we were never going to win the game. Sheffield
04:45United, I thought we were really, really good for 90 minutes, but Sheffield United probably
04:50edged it on the day. I just thought yesterday we were the better team over 90 minutes, we
04:54should have won the game, we deserved to win the game. We didn't do it, we didn't put the
04:56ball in the back of the net, but really pleased having followed up that last 45 at Hull.
05:02My big question mark of the squad was how are we going to respond from a positive performance
05:06on the weekend, because any time we'd had that good performance on a Saturday, we'd
05:10follow it up with real rubbish in midweek going away from home. The travel sometimes
05:15comes into it, I don't know what the mentality comes into it, I just thought it was chalk
05:19and cheese. I know you might even go, OK, Plymouth are a side that we can compete with
05:26a bit better, but I thought regardless of that, I didn't think it mattered who we would
05:30have played last night. I thought we'd been on the front foot and we would have been at
05:32it, and that's much more like us.
05:34Are you concerned about the league table at present?
05:36I'm not happy with it, yeah. I'd be lying if I said that, I'm not sure if concern is
05:45the right word, but we're not happy with where we are in the league. We want to be better,
05:51we want to have more points, we want to climb up the table and we need to win games to do
05:55that. We're not looking at going, oh, the league table is completely irrelevant at this
06:01stage of the season, I think it's a good reflection of where all the sides are at. We're bottom
06:05of the league at the minute and we need to be better.
06:07I suppose you don't want to be adrift by Christmas ahead of the transfer window, do you?
06:12Yeah, and that's something that so far in the future, the only thing we have to work
06:16on is getting points at the weekend. Things change very, very quickly, a couple of wins
06:20in a week. If the two results had gone differently for us at the weekend than last night, which
06:25they easily could have done, we're probably sat here with five more points, which I don't
06:30think is inconceivable. We have to make sure that we keep stepping on ourselves and try
06:36and do that.
06:37Is 14 games in enough to judge a season so far?
06:42Yeah, I think the table is an accurate reflection of the league at the minute. I think after
06:4714 games you're pretty much where you deserve to be.
06:50Do you believe you are in a relegation battle?
06:55I think until we're mid-table and safe, then I think you have to be realistic about where
07:05you are in the league. You earn your way out of the right of saying you're in a relegation
07:10battle by being out of the relegation zone. So after 14 games, I think we have to make
07:15sure that we're not in the relegation zone in a few games' time. I don't think there's
07:21any point in sugarcoating it. We've got to make sure that we win games and we get ourselves
07:25out of it.
07:26Obviously there's plenty of games left and you talked about how there were definite positive
07:30signs in the last two matches especially.
07:32Yeah, there's been loads of positive signs this season. It's just that consistency and
07:36what we've now seen is a bit more consistency. I think the lads have really clicked into
07:43gear in certain aspects and certain areas of the game. One area, I think fitness-wise,
07:48we look really fit. I think we outran both sides on Saturday and Tuesday. We're seeing
07:53a lot in terms of the structure of the press. I saw some real bravery on the ball as well.
07:57I thought we played some really good football, especially in the first half. I'm really pleased
08:01with a lot of aspects of the game and we've shown that in glimpses through the season
08:04where we look at it and think we're a bit unlucky here, a bit unlucky there. I just
08:08think now we look a lot more solid, a lot more organised and going into this next game
08:13and then the games after the international break, I'm really bullish.
08:16What do you make of Preston?
08:18I haven't seen a huge amount because we don't cross over in terms of the game prep so we
08:22do a lot of preparation on Preston today but from what I have seen, we've got slightly
08:27fortunate in terms of being able to watch the Plymouth-Preston game. So we get to see
08:32both sides of it. That was Plymouth's last game at home. They were a side that completely
08:37dominated that game. They were 3-0 up in the first half and came back to draw the game
08:42in the end. But really good side, really well organised. Paul has taken Chefs United up
08:49from this league very, very quickly after he took the job. So he did really, really
08:55well there. He knows exactly what he's doing. They've got a good squad, a well-established
08:58championship squad and they'll be a real threat.
09:01How can you get to see the English firing again?
09:04I think a lot of it's about making sure that he has that consistency in terms of the run
09:10of games. That's why we wanted to play him again on Tuesday night. We took him off against
09:13Hull to give Mark a run and to save his legs. I think getting him going is about playing
09:19games. Whether he does that at the weekend, I don't know. We'll have to have a look at
09:23that. Ultimately it's about a bit of confidence with Kass. I think if he puts the ball in
09:27the back of the net then you see a very, very different player and he's got to make sure
09:30he earns the right to do that. There's definitely potential to improve there.
09:35What do you make of his performances so far?
09:37I think he's grown into them. He's grown into the games. I think coming off the back of
09:42a couple of injuries, so coming off the back of two injuries, to make his first start at
09:46Hull. There were aspects of the first half I wanted him to be better at and then I think
09:52in the second half he looked a lot better, a lot more comfortable with the way he wanted
09:56the press, a lot more physical. We disappointed he missed that chance but then he puts himself
10:01in a really good position where he's taken down for a penalty. And then again last night
10:06I thought he started leading the press really well. There's just a couple of those moments
10:11where I think he tidies up and when he's either in on goal or he's got the opportunity to
10:17get a shot off and maybe get that goal when he's in around the box then those small little
10:23moments, particularly in possession, I think those are the areas that he needs to improve.
10:27He played so well last year. Is it the fact that he's a step up or the fact that he's
10:31coming back from injuries that's not got him there at the moment?
10:35Probably a bit of both really. He did so well last year in a dominant side that was top
10:40of the league for the majority of the year and we had a lot of time to bed him into the
10:46side as well. He didn't have to come straight in. He made a lot of appearances off the bench.
10:49I think his first league start for the football club probably wouldn't have come until November.
10:54I know it's similar here but that's more because of injury. So we had a lot more time to bed
10:59him in. I think the difference in terms of the way that we dominated games last year,
11:04it's a different league, the level is different. You come up against really, really good experienced
11:09centre-halves and I don't think the injuries helped either and we need to get him back
11:12to full fitness.