Portsmouth boss’ reacts to widening gap to Championship safety as survival concerns grow at Swansea City
John Mousinho pinpointed Pompey’s lack of final-third quality as the decisive factor in their Swansea City downfall.
But the Blues boss insisted the widening gap to Championship safety is ‘irrelevant’ to him, as his side fell to a bleak 1-0 reverse against the fellow strugglers.
It’s three points to safety as Mousinho’s men went down to a defeat which made it just a single win in 10 league fixtures.
The Pompey head coach promised his focus is on finding a win to arrest that run and not the league table, as concerns about the season’s direction continued to grow in Wales.
Mousinho said: ‘The goal is the difference, and I’m really disappointed with how we concede it from getting the press wrong at the top end of the pitch.
‘We make the subs and get the message on to try to make sure they’re clear in what they’re doing, I think we got that wrong.
‘That was the moment that changed it, but I was pleased with the performance - I just think we can be a lot more creative and more ruthless in the final third.
‘The gap and the league table is irrelevant to me at the minute, we just need to make sure we try to win a game.
‘We have to try to win that game at the weekend, every game coming up is absolutely huge now.
‘We have a big game against Blackburn at the weekend and then it’s Derby, QPR and Charlton - these all massive games for us.’
The game started reasonably enough for Pompey, as they found themselves in promising positions, but the side’s lack of confidence became more apparent as the night wore on.
Mousinho feels there’s still belief in his group, however, but decision making was not at the required level in key attacking moments.
He added: ‘We get ourselves into some really good positions and great spots, but we don’t test the keeper enough - I thought that was a theme again tonight.
‘I see confident players for the most part, players who put the ball in the back of the net in training.
‘We do have players at the top end of the pitch with confidence. I didn’t see people bottling it on the ball, we had people who wanted to get on the ball and play. I saw plenty of that, it was just that final third.
‘My biggest frustration is we got into good areas. We got into the final third really well, but don’t test the keeper. Maybe it’s a bit of confidence to take on the right shots and really put the opposition under pressure.’