Back in fashion: Portsmouth boss on the resurgence of football's forgotten art - and why he's following suit

It’s football’s blast from the past which has come back into fashion in the search for goals.

And while long throws have yet to prove particularly productive for Pompey, John Mousinho will continue to utilise such set-piece situations in the hope they can make marginal gains.

The sight of Marlon Park hurling the ball into the box has become commonplace at Fratton Park this season, keeping in line with the comeback of long throws to the Premier League and Football League.

Frustratingly for the Fratton faithful, the new weapon in the Blues’ armoury has so far barely threatened to be successful, despite its frequent outings.

As witnessed in last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Bristol City, Pompey’s ongoing lack of aerial dominance in the opposition box ensures team-mates rarely get on the end of Pack’s throw-ins.

But, according to Mousinho, the old school method is here to stay.

Pompey boss: They went out of fashion

He told The News: ‘I suppose football is revisiting set-pieces and long throws at the moment.

‘Forever and a day set-pieces have always been a hugely important part of the game, we built a lot of our success in League One off the back of scoring a lot of set-pieces.

‘Some of the biggest goals we had in that campaign were set-pieces and we had a very strong record defensively and attacking as well.

‘We haven’t necessarily changed anything in terms of our structure and our set-up. Obviously personnel has changed in there, but set-pieces will always be very, very important.

‘Now we have long throws, which are really interesting. They went out of fashion for the past couple of years, but have suddenly come back in.

‘It depends on whether you get it right, not just the long throw-in but always getting it right underneath that with players attacking the ball.

‘Both sides had long throws at the weekend which didn’t come to anything, Bristol City had Rob Dickie, we had Marlon.

‘With the long throws, every time we don’t win first contact in either box it can be frustrating, but often the centre-half or the defensive player in that situation is favourite underneath the ball heading it away from, so it's difficult to sometimes get on the end of any throws.’

Four straight defeats for Charlton

Pompey head to The Valley on Saturday (12.30pm) to face a Charlton side who have lost four successive matches, including a 5-1 defeat to Southampton in their last home fixture.

After enjoying a racing start to the season following League One promotion, the Addicks have slipped to 17th spot, albeit still six points clear of the Blues.

While Pompey lost to Bristol City last weekend, Mousinho is encouraged by their set-piece performance - having previously been their biggest weakness.

And he’s banking on maintaining that at The Valley on Saturday.

‘I guess that’s one of the biggest positives’

He added: ‘I guess one of the biggest positives at the weekend was the fact we didn’t concede from a set-play, which was a building block because we needed to make first and foremost we did that.

‘Probably had we conceded from a set-piece the atmosphere may have turned sour, not that we are sitting here patting ourselves on the back about that.’

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