'There was no-one else': Portsmouth boss on team-sheet error - and why he named two keepers on the bench
The Blues named two goalkeepers among their substitutes against Sheffield United
John Mousinho blamed an admin error for the inclusion of an injured Tyrese Shade on the team-sheet against Sheffield United.
Yet there was no mistake over naming two goalkeepers on the bench for the 3-2 success, with the Blues’ head coach insisting there was nobody else left in the building.
Shade had initially been included among Pompey’s substitutes for Wednesday night’s Fratton Park clash, despite having failed a fitness test earlier that day.
The mistake was noticed around 15 minutes later, with an amended team-sheet submitted, consisting of both Daniel Bielica and Ben Killip on the bench.
As a consequence, it raised plenty of questions before a ball had been even kicked against the Blades.
‘We don’t have any other players at the moment’
Mousinho afterwards told The News: ‘Tyrese had a fitness test on Wednesday morning, around 11am, so we submitted that to the club. We thought he was going to make it and I guess we just haven’t updated it.
‘I knew early on that Tyrese wasn’t going to be involved, so by the time we got to the ground, when we submitted our team-sheets to the EFL, I did that with the analysis staff - but our admin had been given a different one.
‘No issues, Tyrese obviously wasn’t fit, he should be fine for the weekend, but it wasn’t like he walked in, tripped over the steps and found himself injured.
‘So we named two goalkeepers on the bench because we don’t have any other players at the moment.’
With John Swift joining the treatment room with a knee injury and expected to be sidelined for up to six weeks, it left Mousinho with no more fit players to put on the bench.
The Blues are already without Conor Shaughnessy, Benjy Arthur, Josh Murphy, Connor Ogilvie, Thomas Waddingham, Franco Umeh and Mark Kosznovszky.
As for their three first-year pros, Michael Ani (Hawks) and Nathaniel Chioma (Poole) are presently away on loan.
In addition, Chinedu Agu last week joined Basingstoke and has since featured twice, including Tuesday night’s 4-1 defeat at the Hawks, when he faced fellow Academy graduate Ani.
And Mousinho wasn’t prepared to call any of them back to sit on the bench against Sheffield United.
‘We didn’t want to recall them’
He added: ‘We’ve got the young lads out on loans, doing well. Two of them played against each other on Tuesday night in Chins and Mike, so we didn’t want to recall them.
‘We could stick an Academy player on the bench for the sake of it, but I don’t think it’s the right situation and the right atmosphere to bring players in.
‘It sounds stupid, but why not just give yourself the extra goalkeeper, just in case, rather than waste a spot.’