Pompey boss John Mousinho's press conference ahead of Middlesbrough game
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00:00It was a tough one to take because we'd done what we hadn't done for a couple of the previous
00:09away games and we'd stayed in the game, we'd made it difficult, we grew into the game at
00:12the back end of the first half, conceded a couple of chances early on but nothing that
00:18properly tested Mikko, just a bit of last-ditch defending and then we grew into the game really
00:23well, we had the best chance of the half I think on about 42 minutes and hit the bar,
00:28came out in the second half and again, unlike some of the other times, we started well,
00:31so it started well, we looked comfortable, I thought we pressed well. The first goal
00:36was an interesting one, it was a really good move but I still think it's a hopeful cross
00:40from a long way away that we end up conceding, I don't think we should. And then again, to
00:45demonstrate that we can get back into the game, really tough to take with the circumstance
00:48in the second goal but ultimately we just didn't have quite enough.
00:52On that second goal and the others potentially as well, how pivotal were those refereeing
00:57decisions to the end result do you feel?
00:59I thought it was key last night, there's plenty that we need to do better and it's one of
01:07those where we've been on the end of some poor refereeing decisions I think this season,
01:11anybody that's seen us play will see that and some of them have been of absolutely no
01:16consequence because we've been out of games. But yeah, there's a couple recently that have
01:21been of real consequence away from home in particular and I thought the game would have
01:25changed, the food would have been given the penalty and hopefully we score it, it goes
01:28to 1-1 and the whole complexion of the game changes.
01:31Talk us through your views on the two in particular, the push on Colby Bishop and the challenge
01:36on Man Utd on their keeper, what are your views on those?
01:39So my view at the time on the push on Colby, I didn't have a strong opinion on the time
01:46on that one, it's not like I saw it in appeal for a penalty straight away. The only time
01:50I actually saw it was when we watched it back on the bench straight away and I could see
01:53the 200 push and then watched the Sky footage later on where Colby just gets to the long
01:57side of Haim and he turns around, he's not watching the ball and just pushes him. So
02:02I think that's definitely one that should be picked up. Maybe that's a slightly trickier
02:07one because I didn't see it at the time and nobody really appeals apart from Colby. And
02:12then the second one is just clear and obvious, I think it's a Stonewall penalty. Nobody on
02:17the ground would have been surprised if it was given and I think the only person on the
02:20ground that decided it wasn't a penalty, unfortunately, was the most important one
02:24which was the referee.
02:25Did you manage to catch up with the referee afterwards, if so, what was said?
02:28Yeah, I spoke to him, the first incident he said he didn't think there was enough in it.
02:35The second incident, he said the assistant referee gave the penalty and the referee decided
02:41that he thought he was not going to give the penalty, he said it was a coming together.
02:47We didn't really get anywhere, we just disagreed on the definition of what a foul is and anywhere
02:51else in the pitch it's given. If Pairs nicks the ball before Callum and Callum clatters
02:57into him, it's 100% a foul on the yellow card. It happens the other way and it's not given
03:02so yeah, a really difficult one. I think he just got it wrong and everybody knows he got
03:07it wrong and that's pretty much the end of it.
03:10So away from that, how encouraged were you by your team's performance overall on the road?
03:15I was pretty encouraged, there were some things that we needed to do better obviously but
03:21considering we've had some away games, particularly mid-week away games where we just haven't
03:25showed up and I know that's not a particularly good yardstick to be going by but if I take
03:32the game objectively, last night we grew into it pretty well, had the best chance in the
03:35first half, second half I felt we were comfortable, pressed well, the first goal is disappointing
03:40that we conceded that but we don't go under at that point, we come back into the game
03:44and then yeah, we let ourselves down I think in certain moments and the game ends 3-0 but
03:50yeah, there's more encouraging signs, we're clearly not there, we're still not good enough
03:54to go and win a game away from home or take a point away from home and yeah, we have to
03:58address that, we can't just keep relying on our home form for the entire season.
04:01Rob Atkinson made his first league start, managed 65 minutes, how pleased were you with his performance?
04:07Yeah, I thought he played really well, really smooth, no mistakes, decent enough in possession
04:13and pretty dominant I think at the back so really pleased with Rob considering this is
04:16a first league start for so long, we would have kept him on but we felt as the minutes
04:22ticked over that, that 60-minute margin was a real injury risk from that point so it wasn't
04:26even thinking about the weekend, it was just thinking about the injury risk to Rob but
04:28really pleased that we've gotten that, we just need to build him up as quickly as possible
04:31but I think last week the Friday night game gave him that chance to get to this spot and
04:36we've just got to keep going and hopefully in a couple of weeks he's fully fit and ready
04:39to play 90 minutes.
04:40Isaac Hayden come on in the second half as well, his first minutes in a pompous shirt,
04:44how do you rate his performance?
04:45Yeah, I thought he came in, he did some really good things, he was on the front foot, he
04:49put some tackles in and he won some jewels, looked composed in the middle of the park
04:53and again considering it's his first start for quite a while since the back-end of last
04:57season, yeah really pleased with Isaac's contribution in a fast-paced game against
05:01a really good Blackburn outfit so yeah, another one where hopefully we can build Isaac up
05:07quickly and that 45 minutes is going to do him the world of good.
05:10Paddy Lane looked in some discomfort with his knee, is there an update on that situation
05:14at all, what are your first impressions of what it could be?
05:17There's no update from our point of view, Paddy's not in yet but it doesn't look great,
05:22we watched the footage back, he's gone down without any contact and he's left the stadium
05:26on crutches so yeah, we don't know, we don't want to speculate anything but it doesn't
05:30look great.
05:31Any other injuries or knocks picked up?
05:33I think we had Colby was just suffering towards the back-end of the game but he's fine, I've
05:38seen him this morning, no issue there, Christian Szyklowak in that challenge I think with
05:43Beyonce Anderson so we'll assess him this morning but apart from that everything's fine.
05:46So how are things looking on the transfer front since we last spoke, is there anything
05:50expected before Middlesbrough say at the weekend?
05:52No, I don't think anything before Middlesbrough, I spoke to Rich last night after the game
05:58but we spoke about the game mainly so we'll have a catch-up on recruitment this afternoon
06:01once we've got everything done at the post-match and then the build-up to Middlesbrough today
06:05so it's been one again around those match days where I take myself away from it and
06:10there's been plenty that's gone on behind the scenes but I suspect by the time we get
06:13to Middlesbrough it'll be the same squad minus any injuries we've picked up.
06:16And how about potential outgoings, any changes on that front?
06:20Yeah, same there, I'm sure there's probably been a couple of changes and there's probably
06:23been a bit of activity but nothing that I've concerned myself with over the last couple of days.
06:27Can I just get a word on Sami Silveira, he's been recalled since we last spoke, he's gone
06:32out on loan already to leave one black pool, why do you think it didn't quite work out for him here?
06:37I don't know, there's probably a lot of reasons and I don't think it's worth digging into
06:44it too much, sometimes these things work out and sometimes they don't and you know Sami
06:48came in, we were excited about the signing, particularly off the back of what he'd done
06:51on Australia and what he did last year and he started the first couple of games for us,
06:57I thought he looked bright in spells and struggled for form, we changed the way we
07:04played a little bit which probably didn't help Sami and struggled a couple of times
07:07with injuries and ultimately it was one of those that didn't work out, maybe a victim
07:13of the change in style as well and I think for Sami it's a really good move and I'm sure
07:18he'll do really well and thank him for the service as well and everything he's done for us at the Football Club.
07:23So there's not a lot of turnaround, back in action again on Saturday, this time at home against Middlesbrough,
07:27how do you feel ahead of this one?
07:30We were still licking the wounds from last night, we've got to get over that pretty quickly,
07:35the schedule is so tough at the minute with that game, normally that would have been a
07:40free week after the FA Cup and we haven't had that postponement, it's May-January,
07:46a really, really tough January so we've got to make sure we try and deal with that, we've
07:49got a couple of home games coming up which is nice, so we have to make sure we put last
07:54night to bed, we take everything we can from that and get on with Middlesbrough as soon as we can.
07:58You've got two home games on the balance now, is that good timing would you say?
08:01I think it's great timing, we've had five of the last six away from home, we've not
08:05picked up any results so we clearly need to first of all address that away form but in
08:13the meantime we've got to really focus on picking up points at home which is one thing
08:16that over the past few weeks, over the past few home games we've been very good at doing
08:19and I think everybody will be looking forward to being back at Fratton Park.
08:25We're approaching the halfway point of the transfer window, realistically what positions
08:29do you want to strengthen?
08:32I think without nailing down any specific positions I think the priority is probably
08:37going to be attacking areas so I think that's where we're going to have some flexibility
08:41in that but particularly if we've now got Paddy injured we'll assess that and see where
08:48we are off the back of that but probably just adding firepower, I know it's quite vague
08:54but that would probably be the...
08:55You say firepower, you really said you don't want to strike us, you're talking about wingers?
09:00More likely the creative attacking players I think.
09:04How do you view your wing options at the moment then?
09:06Obviously Saverio's gone as well.
09:08Yeah, well we've had wing options at the minute, we've got Murph who's played the majority
09:14of the season and I think he's been brilliant out on the left there, we've had Matt who's
09:21come in and he's done really, really well, probably unlucky to not be in the side for
09:26the past couple of games but we felt we were just going for a slightly different look in
09:31the last couple and last night we wanted to have that full width with Callum, have that
09:34little pace out wide which we didn't get the result but on another day because of that
09:43width and because of that pace we've come away from the game, if we get the penalty
09:47we go that's worked quite well keeping the full width on both sides there.
09:52So yeah, the sort of options there with Paddy's injury is definitely an area I think we need
10:01to look at.
10:02What sort of winger do you want?
10:05Again we're not being too prescriptive on the profile of player, what we just want to
10:10do is bring in players that can impact the side and can impact the team and are good
10:16players and I think if you, I've spoken about this quite a bit before, you can be really
10:21picky about certain profiles and try and get the perfect attacking player or the perfect
10:25defender in and sometimes it doesn't fall in your lap, you're better off taking the
10:28best available option and then going from there.
10:31Are you also looking at the number 10 area as well?
10:34Again, so the reason I say that attacking threat is players are interchangeable across
10:38those positions a lot of the time.
10:39I think that if you look at the players that we have in the building, I think we've talked
10:44about our wingers so Matt and Paddy can both play wide, they can both play to 10, Callum
10:47has played wide, he's played to 10 as well, Sammy did it and we'd probably be a bit more
10:51hesitant about doing that with Murph, I think we'd like to keep Murph out wide.
10:55And pretty much the rest of the positions in your squad you're okay with?
10:59Yeah, I think so and the other one, because he's been injured recently, we've got Harvey
11:04coming back into it and that's one that probably gives us that pace and width out wide as well
11:10so that could be a really interesting one over the next six weeks if Harvey comes back
11:14and he hits the ground running and he gives us what we know he can give us then it gives
11:17us another option wide.
11:19Jordan Archer's injury, what's the status of that one?
11:21He's actually okay, it's just a minor grade 1A so I suspect Jordan will be back over the
11:29next couple of days.
11:30Okay, well that's something, some positive news.
11:35What's the process with Rob Atkinson and Isaac Hayden in terms of easing them into the team
11:41with minutes, we've already seen that with Rob over the last few games?
11:44I think Isaac's probably a bit more straightforward, Isaac's not come off the back of an injury,
11:47he's been training with Newcastle over the past four or five months at real high intensity
11:54and he played games at the back end of the last season with QPR all the way through till
11:59I think early May.
12:01So Isaac's slightly different, we just need to get him his match fitness and get that
12:06quickly, he's got 45 under the belt last night which is good.
12:09Rob's a different story because Rob hasn't played in so long, it's a little bit of match
12:14fitness but it's much more about when you tip over a certain minute, so we tip over
12:18the 60 minute mark he becomes a real injury risk from that point onwards.
12:22I don't necessarily feel that would be the case with Isaac, we just have to build his
12:26match fitness up and make sure he's sharp enough to play in the championship.
12:29Rob now has had those three games, we've got to keep building him up, I think the next
12:33step is probably to get over 70, 75 and then we're probably close to 90, it's just how
12:39we weigh that up over the next few weeks is going to be an interesting challenge for us
12:43because we have to weigh up whether we can play him at the weekend off the back of Wednesday,
12:48if we play him over the weekend, can we play him against Stoke etc etc.
12:51So we have to be careful with that.
12:53Is it much of a headache trying to work it out game by game with him?
12:56Yeah, I mean it's fine, it's part and parcel of the job and yeah we'll try and do that
13:02as best we can and just make sure we protect Rob, that's the most important thing.
13:05And again we saw what he brings aside, he was magnificent in the air last night especially.
13:08Yeah I thought he was really really solid, defended really well and led the line really
13:13well, we looked really solid, unfortunately we had to bring him off and like I said otherwise
13:18we wouldn't have done it, it wasn't anything other than protecting Rob.
13:21So really pleased with that, building off the back of a really positive performance
13:25against Sunderland, probably not his best display against Wickham but his first start
13:30in difficult circumstances.
13:31So to come into this first league start last night I was really pleased.