'The worst we've played for a long time': Portsmouth boss blasts Blues after Swansea loss
The Blues slipped to a third straight Fratton Park defeat after a 2-1 loss against Swansea
John Mousinho reflected on Pompey’s first-half debacle and admitted: ‘It was the worst we have played in a long time’.
The Blues produced a shocking opening 45 minutes which saw them trailing Swansea 2-0 at the break, while an out-of-sorts Milli Alli was hauled off at the interval.
Ultimately, the Swans’ advantage was too much for Mousinho’s men to claw back, despite Jacob Brown pulling one back on 64 minutes with his first for the club.
The 2-1 loss represented a third straight home defeat for Pompey, yet none produced a first-half quite as shocking as the one witnessed against Swansea by a furious Fratton faithful.
Mousinho told The News: ‘That first half was the worst we have played in a long time.
‘We were really poor in the first half, much improved in the second half, very, very different. It was chalk and cheese really in terms of the two halves of football. Ultimately, we gave ourselves too much to do.
‘In that first half we were two yards off everything, we couldn't get much right in possession or out of possession, whether we overcommitted on the press, whether we didn't win first or second balls.
‘A couple of times in the first half there were passages when Swansea picked everything up and those intangibles of the game we didn’t really apply properly. And then on the ball, we were really, really poor, some basic errors in possession.
‘We kept giving the ball away and maybe that led to us being slightly more hesitant. We didn’t play, we went too direct, and, as soon as we changed that in the second half, we were much better.
‘We were facing a side with a press which was aggressive, which maybe put us off slightly, we just weren’t quite at it.
‘Ultimately, going 2-0 down cost us, but we still scored with plenty of time to go and had plenty of chances to get back into the game. On another night, we get back into it.’
With Leicester City winning 2-0 over Bristol City, it means they are now within two points of Pompey, having played a game more.
Mousinho’s men remain in 19th place, four points adrift of Charlton in the position immediately above, with high-flying Derby visiting Fratton Park on Monday.
Mousinho added: ‘My take to the boys in the dressing room afterwards was there are two things to dissect.
‘The first is the game, which we have to break down, but the second - and more important thing in my eyes - is that tonight becomes a one-off.
‘If you say it’s one of those where we haven’t performed well, then fine. As long as when we do perform well, we take the points we need to take - and we haven’t done that.
‘Blackburn, Sheffield United, Hull, we dropped points we shouldn't have dropped - and that means tonight becomes more of an issue.’