'Really poor period': Portsmouth boss searches for reasons as beleaguered Blues eye welcome break
The Blues collected just two points from six matches since the last international break
John Mousinho believes the international break has arrived at a ‘good time’ for faltering Pompey after a dreadful period.
Since the Championship campaign was last paused, the Blues have taken just two points from six matches, losing four of them.
During those three weeks, Mousinho’s men have scored four goals and conceded 11, while dropping from an encouraging 14th to two places above the relegation zone.
Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Hull signalled the final fixture before the start of the latest international break, with Pompey next in action on Saturday, November 22 with a home clash against Millwall.
It represents a welcome break for Mousinho’s beleaguered side, while allowing the opportunity for the likes of Nicolas Schmid and Callum Lang to step up their injury returns to bolster the team’s quality.
Portsmouth boss: This period has been really poor
The head coach told The News: ‘This period has been really poor in terms of results, that’s the way we have to assess it.
‘The performance levels shown in the first two blocks and the results we picked up were pretty good. Then you come into this period of games off the back of the Middlesbrough game and we picked up where we left off with a really positive result against Leicester.
‘There’s a multitude of reasons why things changed and we have to unpick that. It’s my job to make sure we get right, it’s going to be a combination of things, a lot of things we deal with across the board.
‘We are really positive while being realistic about the position and being miserable about the (Hull) result. We have to have that balance going into this week and into the Millwall game when we come back.
‘Ultimately, if our heads drop too much, it’s not the right way to be as a professional athlete. We need to make sure we mix that positivity with realism. We’ve come through plenty of tough periods before and we need to make sure we come through this as well.
‘This international break has probably come at a good time, mostly because we get players back by the time we get to that Millwall game and missing those key players obviously hasn’t helped either.
‘We managed to get through that period up until the Middlesbrough and Leicester games, missing some good players, but putting in good performances. Maybe it has been a bit too much for the squad recently.’
Pompey led the game against Hull
Pompey had led Hull 1-0 through Terry Devlin’s 16th-minute opener, although it was all-square at 2-2 at the break after the right wing-back grabbed his second to level.
However, Joe Gelhardt settled the contest 11 minutes from time to lift the Tigers into the top five - and leave the visitors in 20th spot.
Mousinho added: ‘We always assess games and think what if we had nicked one of those last-minute scrambles. Then it would have been a positive away performance, coming away from home and getting a point.
‘Objectively on the performance, we’re probably pretty even, two steps forward in some areas and two steps back in others.
‘We did enough to be secure in the game and take a point - but whether we deserved to or not, I don’t know.’