John Mousinho unveils blueprint for Portsmouth underdogs springing a Southampton surprise
Pompey haven’t lost at St Mary’s since an FA Cup game in January 2005
John Mousinho has called on his Pompey underdogs to exploit a lack of expectation on their St Mary’s return.
There are many among the Fratton faithful who aren’t confident of a positive result in Sunday’s south-coast derby which marks the resumption of the Championship season.
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Mousinho’s men were gathering encouraging momentum with three matches unbeaten until the international break rudely interrupted progress.
Now, 23 days later, they are returning to action at Southampton, hardly ideal preparation for the head coach’s third south-coast fixture.
Yet Mousinho has learnt plenty from last season’s double stalemate, which included a goalless St Mary’s draw in September 2025, prompting home fans to boo at the final whistle.
And he is urging for a repeat of that resilient approach from his players this time around.
‘As the away side, we can go and take the stress off ourselves’
Mousinho told The News: ‘It’s a really important part to make sure we ramp up the emotion, but don’t get too carried away. Get the balance right between the two and try to enjoy the occasion.
‘These games are in some ways different to others, more in terms of the preparation and then probably the atmosphere on the day, but I don’t think the football differs massively.
‘If we were preparing for Southampton and they weren’t our rivals, we would prepare in a similar way tactically and try to set up in the same way, that doesn’t change a huge amount. We still have a football game to play and that’s a really important thing to make sure we remind ourselves of.
‘Away from that, we just have to deal with everything else that goes with it. As the away side, we can go and take the stress off ourselves in that situation as well, I don’t think the expectations are going to be massively for us to be on the front foot or for us to go and dominate possession.
‘So we can have that eye on having a performance which we’d want to see from an away side - and go from there.
‘Last year’s south-coast derbies were two very different experiences. The Fratton Park game and the match away from home were very different occasions.
‘We went to St Mary’s with a very clear game plan in terms of what we wanted to do and I thought we were excellent in the first half and completely controlled the game. As good as Southampton were last year, they then came back into it.
‘For the most part we handled the occasion of their place very, very well and did what we needed to do in terms of being that away team.
‘It was different at home, we wanted to try to leverage that home support, try to leverage how intense and ferocious the atmosphere can be at Fratton Park in normal circumstances, let alone when it’s a derby where the fans have been waiting for so many years.
‘We did that very well. We didn’t get the result we wanted, we thought we could have won, and were more likely towards the back end of the game to win it.’
Southampton positioned 13th in the Championship
Having started the season on minus four points, Southampton have climbed into 13th, progression built entirely on their home form.
Eckert’s men have won all four of their Championship matches at St Mary’s, scoring at least three goals in each of them, yet have still to triumph on the road.
Clearly it will be a tough task for the Blues attempting to silence a team widely expected to feature among the promotion contenders this season.
Mousinho added: ‘I don’t know if Southampton will get promoted, I definitely expect them to challenge.
‘There are a lot of very, very good sides at the level and the expectations internally there - despite the points dedication - will be they can't spend too many years in the Championship with the resources and amount of money spent.
‘I think promotion is going to be more of an expectation on their part than mine.’