'A shame' - Portsmouth boss airs frustration with team leaks ahead of matches - including Birmingham game
Pompey travel to Hul City on Saturday with head coach John Mousinho hoping his starting XI for the game doesn’t appear on social media in the build-up
John Mousinho has expressed frustration that information regarding Pompey team selections ahead of games is being regularly leaked.
One of the latest incidents happened prior to the Blues’ Championship trip to Birmingham last weekend, when key details about the visitors’ starting line-up appeared on social media in the build-up to the St Andrew’s fixture.
Mousinho made a number of changes to the team that lost at home to Stoke City a week earlier - including the omission of both Colby Bishop and Conor Chaplin from his starting XI. Annoyingly, that information was already in the public domain well before kick-off, with Pompey going on to lose the game 4-0.
The Blues boss has pointed the finger of blame at certain supporters, with the club’s training ground pitches in Hilsea visible from certain positions and overlooked by the Pompey Health and Fitness Club gym that has membership available for members of the public.
Mousinho remains unsure how much of an impact the leak makes on a match-day. But he is adamant that is frustrating - particularly when he believes it’s the club’s own fanbase who are potentially handing a clear advantage to opposition teams.
John Mousimho: A bit frustrating really
When asked about the matter during his press conference ahead of Saturday’s game at Hull 912.30pm kick-off), the Blues boss told BBC Radio Solent: ‘It's one of those things. Who knows how much it affects the game, who knows if the opposition XI actually finds out via those channels.
‘It's a bit of a strange one to me, I think if you look at probably the mode that the team is getting out, it's via Portsmouth fans who you would assume would know that sort of information quite deliberately is kept in-house.
‘But, yeah, a bit frustrating really. We're at a stage of the football club's development where we are where we are with the training ground. We want to aspire at some point to keep moving on with where we are in the training ground.
‘We don't actually ever want to be a place that's shut off, we want to be open, we want everyone to feel part of the community and welcome, and I think it works really well that we're on this site.
‘There's always a lot of positivity coming from everybody that walks in and out of the building here and, yeah, it's just a bit of a shame really, a really frustrating one from my perspective and hopefully it doesn't happen too many times again.’