'Excellent' Portsmouth forgotten man praised by impressed boss after shock first-team return at Millwall

Certainly Harvey Blair’s first outing in more than four months provided a few moments of encouragement during a maiden Fratton Park season in which he has frustratingly delivered little.

Mousinho described the former Liverpool man as ‘excellent’ after a 21-minute cameo off the bench in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Millwall.

The 21-year-old twice delivered teasing balls into the box from the right-hand side during the build up to Andre Dozzell’s 80th-minute opener.

Ultimately, Pompey lost it at the death through Mihailo Ivanovic’s second goal of the game to deny them a point.

But Mousinho was delighted with the contribution of Blair in his maiden appearance since November’s 2-2 draw at Swansea.

He told The News: ‘That’s one of the reasons why we brought Harvey on, we’ve seen plenty of that from him in training and he’s got a huge amount of ability.

‘I thought he impacted the game really well and kept going at their full-back and had a big part in the goal. Harvey was excellent, he got the space in the first place and delivered a very, very dangerous ball into the box.

‘He just needs to keep coming on and performing like that. It’s the first time he has come on in a long, long time. We were hopeful he would make a difference, which he did.

‘Harvey’s got to keep doing that, he’s got to keep performing in training, he’s got to keep having an impact when he comes on in games like that and keep his head down.’

The foul that never was

It was Blair’s ninth appearance for the Blues since arriving from Anfield in August for an undisclosed fee.

The winger previously hadn’t even made eight of the last nine squads, yet with Mark O’Mahony absent through injury and Kusini Yengi not included, he was offered a way back.

Blair was subsequently introduced in the 69th minute as a part of a triple substitution as the Blues attempted to rescue a 1-0 deficit after Ivanovic’s opener.

Once Dozzell levelled, it appeared the match was heading for a 1-1 draw until Blair was challenged by George Saville as he attempted to drive upfield following a Millwall right-wing corner.

And, with no foul forthcoming from referee Ben Toner, Casper De Norre’s cross from the right was headed home by Ivanovic.

And Mousinho believes Pompey were denied a foul for that challenge on Blair.

He added: ‘It was given as a foul 50 other times in the game, but obviously not in that moment.’

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