'Shot ourselves in the foot': Portsmouth boss' honest assessment of Daniel Bielica's Blackburn performance
The Blues claimed a second consecutive draw to head into the international break in 18th spot
John Mousinho has absolved Daniel Bielica from blame for Blackburn’s opener in Saturday’s 2-2 draw.
Although the head coach admits the Polish goalkeeper ‘will be disappointed’ with his clearance for Rovers’ second.
According to Mousinho, Tony Mowbray’s side didn’t have to work hard enough for both their goals in the final Championship match before the international break.
The role of Bielica, who made his fourth Blues outing since his July arrival, has been questioned for each goal.
The first saw Dapo Afolayan cut in from the left and beat him at the near post with a shot from just inside the box, while the second emanated from a poor clearance which launched a Blackburn attack for Ryoya Morishita to score from.
And Mousinho has given his honest appraisal of Bielica’s performance in the Fratton Park fixture.
‘We showed him back onto his strong foot’
He told The News: ‘I was right behind the first goal, I don’t think there’s much Daniel can do.
‘We showed Dapo Afolayan back inside and it went through legs. I don’t think there’s anything you can do there. He will be disappointed with the clearance for the second goal, though.
‘My overall take of the goals is we didn’t make Blackburn work enough to create those opportunities.
‘My recollection of the first goal is it came from a second phase set-play. We had two players out on Afolayan and we showed him back inside - and one of the things we speak about is showing players outside.
‘If we show them outside and they end up putting the ball into the top corner from there, I will live with it. We showed him back onto his strong foot, the ball went through legs and it ended up in the back of the net.
‘The second goal, we have to look at where we were in terms of taking the quick throw, the detail on the pass, all those sorts of things. Daniel will be disappointed with that, although there are other areas as well.
‘His shot stopping was pretty good, it’s just that one bit of distribution in the second half which ended up being a goal.’
Replaced Nicolas Schmid as Portsmouth number one
Bielica displaced Nicolas Schmid as Pompey number one following last month’s 2-1 defeat at Bristol City.
Although there was a debut 2-0 defeat to Derby, he subsequently entered Saturday’s encounter with Blackburn off the back of successive clean sheets.
In the end, Pompey were indebted to Ryan Kavuma-McQueen’s shot which deflected off Colby Bishop for securing a point with a 74th-minute leveller.
Mousinho added: ‘We were good in patches, really poor in other patches and overall we should have won the game.
‘With the chances created, we had some really good opportunities. I didn’t think we were particularly wasteful, but their keeper made some saves and some good blocks and we didn't quite get the ball into the back of the net in certain moments.
‘The big disappointment for me was we went a goal up, were in control of the game, and shot ourselves in the foot by conceding.
‘Then we started the second half really well, we had 10 minutes of unbelievable pressure and didn’t put the ball into the back of the net - then shot ourselves in the foot by conceding the second.’