'A multitude of things': Portsmouth boss addresses why Colby Bishop and Conor Chaplin were axed at Birmingham
The pair were dropped to the bench for Saturday’s trip to Birmingham
John Mousinho has revealed Colby Bishop was axed for ‘a multitude of things’ against Birmingham.
And Pompey’s head coach is adamant it was the ‘right thing’ for Conor Chaplin to also join the striker on the bench.
The duo, who have scored one goal between them this season, were dropped for Saturday’s trip to St Andrew’s, with John Swift and Mark Kosznovszky coming into the side.
It was a huge call by Mousinho, particularly in the case of Bishop, who has been the Blues’ leading scorer for three successive seasons.
Instead Makenzie Kirk was challenged with leading Pompey’s attack against Birmingham, representing successive starts for the 21-year-old.
However, it was another blank for the Blues as they slumped to a 4-0 defeat with comfortably their worst display of the season so far.
Portsmouth boss: Over the last week to 10 days we haven’t quite been there
Mousinho told The News: ‘Colby playing was a multitude of things. The game on Saturday, the game on Wednesday, form, how we’ve looked, we are trying to make sure that, whenever we put an XI out, we have players who can compete at the level.
‘Over the last week to 10 days, we haven’t quite been there. Makenzie was a real goal threat against Stoke, pretty unlucky to not get on the scoresheet and obviously scored against Coventry, so that was the choice we made.
‘Ultimately, we have to make decisions when you’ve got this job. There's plenty we get wrong, there’s some we get right.
‘I don’t think that (Colby Bishop) was a huge factor in the game, in fact it was 1-0 when we made the chances anyway. We had all of the players we put on the pitch, I don’t think any of them can come away and say “I played particularly well today”.’
Introduced in the 53rd minute
Chaplin was also omitted from Pompey’s starting XI at St Andrew’s, having failed to score in seven matches since arriving on a season-long loan from Ipswich.
The 28-year-old had been operating on the right wing in the previous five matches, an unfamiliar role which has failed to bring the best out of him.
Ultimately, Bishop and Chaplin were introduced in the 53rd minute, with Minhyoek Yang and Makenzie Kirk making way with the scoreline at 1-0.
Yet it was failure at the other end of the pitch which proved to be the Blues’ downfall, with a further three goals - including two from set-pieces - added in the second half as Chris Davies’ men ran out 4-0 winners.
Next up at Wrexham at Fratton Park on Wednesday (8pm), with Chaplin and Bishop in the frame for recalls against the Welshmen.
‘It was the right thing to do’
He added: ‘With Conor, it was one of those things in terms of taking the whole view on where we are as a team, where we have been over the past two weeks and what we’re looking at for this week.
‘We thought dropping Conor was the right thing to do.’