'Completely unacceptable' - John Mousinho's 'furious' interview live on Sky Sports following Portsmouth's draw at Blackburn Rovers
Pompey boss John Mousinho didn’t hold back when taking questions from Sky Sports after Saturday’s draw at Blackburn Rovers
John Mousinho was in no mood to protect his Pompey players after they threw away a 1-0 lead at relegation rivals Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
The Blues boss let his frustrations show live on Sky Sports after witnessing his side concede an injury-time goal scored by former Fratton Park loanee Hayden Carter just nine minutes after it appeared that Connor Ogilvie had sealed all three points for the visitors.
Mousinho admitted he was furious with the way Pompey closed out the game and once again raised the issue of a mental weakness within his first-team ranks, after they shot themselves in the foot against Hull last weekend.
The 1-1 result at Ewood Park leaves the Blues 19th in the table and five points above the relegation zone with 10 games remaining.
But while Mousinho was generally happy with Pompey’s overall performance against a relegation rival on their own patch, he maitained what was produced after Ogilvie’s opener was ‘completely unnacceptable’.
Here’s his full interview with Sky Sports Luke Shanley, which was broadcast live following the final whistle.
Q. John, how tough was that to take in the end?
Mousinho: Yeah, incredibly tough, I'm furious with the way we saw the game out.
We went a goal up, whether we deserved to or not in a tight game, I think it was a very good away performance for 85 minutes. And as soon as we scored, I don't know what we were doing... just completely unacceptable.
Q Why did you feel that was?
Mousinho: I think we've got probably an issue in the group with the mentality of how we go about our business sometimes.
We went three goals up against Charlton and decided to let them back into the game, and went two goals up against Millwall... the same thing (happened) when we were in complete control of the game.
And, today, nothing in the game, we go a goal up, should see the game out, but for some reason we completely changed the way we were approaching it.
We don't win headers, we don't win tackles, we slash at clearances, we forget to win second balls, we show them back inside. It's completely different from the first 85, 86 minutes, so I'm not accepting it.
Q I can tell you're frustrated. Is that going to have to change quickly, given how key the games are going to be from now until the end of the season?
Mousinho: I think it's completely up to us what we want to do, whether we want to come away from places like this with three points or we want to be in a relegation scrap, and that's the mentality that has to change.
Q. How do you try and implement that or change that?
Mousinho: I think there's been a lot of good performances recently and, again, I'd count today as another very, very impressive away performance in tough circustances.
We should just be coming away here with a goal lead and I think in some of those other games we can certainly forgive certain aspects of the game but not today.
We can't go a goal ahead away from home and shoot ourselves in the foot like we did.
Q. In general, what did you make of the performance and the way the game panned out?
Mousinho: It was a pretty even game, to be honest. I thought we controlled the game largely in terms of possession.
We didn't create a huge amount but when you're playing away from home, sometimes it's just important to make sure you stay in the game at half-time.
After 60 minutes, it's 0-0 and we looked like a dangerous side. I thought in the second half we created quite a few opportunities and scored the goal from the set-piece and really should have seen the game out from there.
For your next Pompey read: 'Horrific': Furious Portsmouth boss John Mousinho blasts players after Blackburn Rovers heartbreak