'It didn't sink in until a few days later': John Mousinho reveals his favourite Portsmouth moment
John Mousinho has been the Blues’ head coach since January 2023
John Mousinho has pinpointed the Pompey moment which eclipsed all his playing achievements.
Although, reflecting on that magnificent League One title-winning achievement, he admits it still took ‘a few days’ for the magnitude of the accomplishment to truly sink in.
In April 2024, the Blues’ head coach capped his first full season at Fratton Park by finally ending the 12-year wait for Championship football.
Conor Shaughnessy’s last-gasp headed winner against Barnsley marked a dramatic comeback for Pompey, who had twice recovered from falling behind to claim the memorable 3-2 victory.
And, in a playing career which totalled 550 appearances and scoring the winner in the League Two play-off final for Stevenage in May 2011, nothing compares to that Barnsley evening.
‘I didn’t really feel anything, it was really strange’
He told The News: ‘I scored the winner for Stevenage in a play-off final and, in that moment, as a player, you feel that emotion.
‘As a coach, when Conor Shaughnessy's goal went in to win us the League One title, I didn’t really feel anything, it was really strange. It didn’t sink in until a few days later.
‘I was so engrossed in the game and we had actually been so poor, that it was such a strange match. Honestly, I’m going through the game thinking “I don’t know how we’re going to get another point all season”.
‘We only need a point to go up, but you put yourself in the mindset of how on earth are we going to get this? We were really poor, then got back into the game to make it 2-2 - and one of the staff tells me that Bolton had lost to Shrewsbury, so we were up anyway.
‘The problem was I had spent the entire second half changing formation about three times. When we got the winner, Paddy Lane had to move back as a six because we had so many attacking players on the pitch!
‘We were playing 3-5-2, but it was as attacking as you could ever hope to be. Even in that moment, there was so much I was thinking about.
‘It turns out we would have gone up anyway, then we won the title, so you could relax for the rest of the season.
‘When that all sinks in, the gravity of getting promoted out of the league and doing what we did that year with Pompey is a far bigger achievement than any bits of my playing career. But, in the moment, sometimes you don’t necessarily feel it.’
Just three days earlier, Pompey were held to a 1-1 draw at Bolton - yet the manner of that performance persuaded Mousinho to rotate his side for the potential Barnsley decider.
In a number of surprising team changes, Colby Bishop, Paddy Lane, Joe Rafferty, Callum Lang and Owen Moxon were all dropped from the starting XI. Instead there were starts for Zak Swanson, Gavin Whyte, Lee Evans, Tino Anjorin and Kusini Yengi.
And Mousinho has explained the reasoning behind those widespread changes.
He added: ‘We had played Bolton at the weekend and looked absolutely dead on our feet. We were lucky to get out of there with a point.
‘Physically, I thought we were completely overrun. There were players we left out against Barnsley because we’d got to that stage of the season. So many games, the intensity and the emotion of being in that tile run was massive. That night felt the players needed that rotation.
‘I remember looking back on the Bolton game and Paddy was an example, he could hardly move, really struggling, so I left him out against Barnsley and Gav (Whyte) came in.
‘Joe Rafferty was the same, Colby had played pretty much every minute of every game since he’d come back from an injury, while at that point Kas was scoring a fair few goals.
‘When you are up there at the top, you can do that sort of thing. We’d get beaten every time last season if we made five changes!’