Exclusive:'Punching above our weight': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho on overachieving - and aiming higher

John Mousinho believes Pompey have consistently ‘punched above our weight’ during his entire Fratton Park managerial tenure.

Yet the head coach is adamant it’s far too early to accurately assess whether the Blues are on course to once again overachieve this season.

Pompey presently sit 13th in the Championship, following a profitable period of three matches in seven days since St Mary’s defeat.

Heading into Saturday’s visit of Millwall (12.30pm), an encouraging run of one loss in seven games has positioned them two points adrift of an expanded play-off system, while seven points clear of the relegation zone.

Pompey have travelled on an upward trajectory since Mousinho’s January 2023 appointment, consistently overachieving - even in their 2023-24 League One title success.

And their head coach is now eyeing the top 10, rather than a third consecutive relegation scrap.

‘That doesn't mean we are going to be the underdogs every single week’

He told The News: ‘Are we overachieving? It’s an interesting one and a difficult one to properly quantify. At the end of the season you can look at budget versus league finishing position, which probably is the biggest metric we use.

‘The table at the moment is so tight that it’s not worth looking at, it’s not really worth thinking about. It’s more a general feeling of whether we are punching above our weight or whether we are competing at the level we compete at.

‘For us, that doesn't mean we are going to be the underdogs every single week, but it’s still about pushing up and moving forward.

‘We are not going to be a top-six side in terms of budget, we’re not necessarily going to be a top-half side, but can we look to maximise every single area of the football club that we possibly can?

‘That’s probably the better way of putting it. Can we try to squeeze every inch out of the players we’ve got in the dressing room and can we be top performers in the way we analyse games, the way we coach, the way we recruit, the way we use data, our medical department, our SSC department. Those are the more important things.

‘If we overperform in the way we set ourselves up as a club, then we give ourselves the best chance to perform on the pitch.

‘If you look against the budget, we have been extremely low in the table for both (Championship) seasons. That’s fine, we definitely know that, we spoke in the summer about how we could improve that.

‘We’ve been getting to grips with that over the past few years’

‘My big take in the summer was the headline figure is important, but also there is absolutely no point in spending more money on players and increasing the budget - and then not having everything else to back it up.

‘Such as not having the facilities, not improving the training ground, not having that continued pressure on the football club to be a better football club. We’ve been getting to grips with that over the past few years.

‘Due to what happened with the club going into administration and not having a training ground, this is all relatively new. We have taken this building on, two years ago we were in Portakabins, we have moved over here, we’re improving everything around here.

‘Making those improvements gives us the best possible chance to get to where we need to be as a football club - and, in the meantime, we have to perform on the pitch.’

In 2023-24, Pompey were crowned League One champions, having finished five points clear of second-placed Derby.

Certainly for Mousinho that represented an overachievement, having targeted a top-six finish from his first full season at Fratton Park.

Appointed head coach of the 15th-placed Blues in January 2023, by the end of that 2022-23 season they had finished eighth, although seven points short of the play-offs.

That summer, the likes of Will Norris, Conor Shaughnessy, Terry Devlin, Kusini Yengi, Regan Poole and Abu Kamara were recruited - and the glorious outcome defied even his expectations.

’The ambition was top six that season’

Mousinho added: ‘The ambition was top six that season and that’s about where we were (with the budget). We then added a bit in January, when we recruited the likes of Callum Lang.

‘After I took over for the back half of the 2022-23 season, we finished eighth. Had we snuck into the play-offs, I don’t think we would be able to compete. We lost to all the big boys when we played them that year.

‘So for me, the top six was a good way for us to try to move forward, but can we be competitive at the level? Can we not go away to Peterborough and struggle, not go to Plymouth and get blown away? We lost to Sheffield Wednesday, lost to Barnsley. It was about us going “Right, we want to get in with the big boys again”.

‘We knew we’d be at the level in terms of being a massive football club in League One, so can we get back to where we need to be as a starter? Then things went really well for us - and we ended up winning the league.’

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