Portsmouth boss' admission as temporary switch could become permanent - starting with Cardiff

The Blues head to fellow strugglers Cardiff on Tuesday night (7.45pm) buoyant from the crucial 2-1 success at QPR at the weekend.

It was a welcome victory underpinned by a formation change introduced for the 1-1 draw with Oxford United and then retained for Saturday’s Loftus Road encounter.

Ditching his favoured 4-2-3-1, Mousinho has instead operated with a back three, consisting of employing Jordan Williams and Josh Murphy at wing-back.

Admittedly, there was a slight tactical alteration connected with Callum Lang’s recall to the starting XI in place of Elias Sorensen - and the ex-Wigan man subsequently revelling in a man-of-the-match display.

And Mousinho could well stick with his newly-installed system for the vital Bluebirds clash.

He told The News: ‘It is definitely an option and we’ve had two really good performances off the back of that. It’s something we are certainly not going to dismiss.

‘What I liked about it at Oxford was it got three centre-forwards onto the pitch. At QPR we had two centre-forwards on the pitch, with that ability for Langy to start from slightly deeper and run into those pockets, rather than not having to start on the left or right.

‘There’s upsides and downsides to every formation you play and, although it’s a bit of a cliche, Saturday was far more about the effort levels and the willingness for the lads to put their bodies on the line than it was the formation.’

With Lang handed a roving attacking responsibility behind Mark O’Mahony and Christian Saydee, it allowed him to use his mobility and pace to wreak havoc.

That was apparent for the Blues’ 18th-minute equaliser, when he somehow managed to beat Morgan Fox to a ball he was second-best for down the right to set up Freddie Potts.

Then, on 57 minutes, Lang won a penalty after nipping in ahead of Fox inside the box, with the defender’s attempted clearance instead connecting with the Pompey man to earn the spot-kick.

Mousinho added: ‘There were a couple of tweaks at half-time. QPR surprised us with their formation, so that was difficult for us, but I thought the lads dealt with it pretty well for the most part.

‘We tweaked the way we were pressing and I’m actually really pleased that the boys dealt with that on the pitch because it was something we didn’t have a huge amount of noise about on the sidelines.

‘Particularly considering that, in our front three, we had the likes of Mark (O’Mahony) and Christian (Saydee) who are still relative novices at this level.’