'Excellent, brilliant': Portsmouth boss hails ex-Birmingham man after ending three-month first-team wait
The July arrival from Stockport has made nine appearances for the Blues, although Swansea was his first start
After a three-month wait, Odin Bailey was finally handed his first start in a Pompey shirt.
And John Mousinho has lauded the former Stockport man’s ‘excellent and brilliant’ display in the dramatic 3-1 success over Swansea.
Recruited on a free in the summer, Bailey had been included in every squad for the opening 14 matches, yet all eight of his appearances had arrived from the bench.
However, for the Fratton Park visit of high-flying Swansea, Mousinho surprisingly opted to hand the 26-year-old a full debut, operating in the number 10 role in place of Adrian Segecic.
He subsequently completed the full 90 minutes as Pompey made it one defeat in 10, with Bailey producing an impressive showing which had the head coach applauding.
‘Very, very dedicated and professional’
Mousinho told The News: ‘Odin has been very unlucky not to play and feature a bit more for us and I think his attitude has been spot on, he has kept himself at it.
‘You don’t come in and play 90 minutes straight off the bat unless you are fit and very, very dedicated and professional - and Odin has done that.
‘He has been very, very disappointed for the last few weeks not to get more minutes, but we thought with the changes we could make and how we could potentially press with a load of energy, Odin was the one to go with in the more advanced of the pressing and then just dropping a bit deeper in possession.
‘The thinking behind it was that Odin seemed like he was ready to go and we wanted to change a couple of bodies from the weekend.’
From left-back to number 10 for Portsmouth
At times in his early Fratton Park days, Bailey has come off the bench to play at left-back, including last month’s south-coast derby.
On Tuesday night, he was handed number 10 duties, with Segecic moving over to the right wing to accommodate him in the role.
Later in the match, following substitute introductions, Bailey moved deeper into the centre of midfield and was still present when Terry Devlin and Thomas Waddingham both netted in time added-on to clinch victory.
It represented the first Championship start of his career, having previously featured off the bench for Birmingham in the 2019-20 season.
Now Mousinho has a selection dilemma for Stoke on Saturday (12.30pm), although the Blues are awaiting news on Iyad Mohamed’s calf injury.
‘His output was brilliant’
Pompey’s head coach added: ‘I thought Odin was excellent, his output was brilliant. He did very well.
‘Considering that’s his first Championship start, to put that level of performance in against a midfield three of Stamenic, Fulton and Franco, that’s a very, very good Championship midfield three, especially when they bring other players on as well to affect that.
‘He dropped back late on when we had to make the change and he did a great job there too.’