Portsmouth boss John Mousinho on reasons behind his shock starting XI for abandoned match

John Mousinho is adamant it was necessity rather than ruthlessness which dictated his shock Pompey starting XI at Charlton.

Although the head coach admits he’s urgently ‘trying to find the right solution’ at present in regards to team selection, as he bids to address their alarming slide down the Championship table.

The tragic death of an Addicks supporter in the Covered End stand signalled the abandonment of Saturday’s match on an emotional day at The Valley.

With 12 minutes played, it clearly wasn’t possible to accurately assess Mousinho’s new-look side, which consisted of six changes from the 1-0 defeat to Bristol City.

While Andre Dozzell was suspended, Regan Poole (ankle) and Josh Knight (back) were injured, with Jordan Williams, Colby Bishop and Adrian Segecic dropped to the bench.

Instead, recalled pair Ibane Bowat and Hayden Matthews were the centre-half partnership, while Terry Devlin, John Swift, Minhyeok Yang and Conor Chaplin also returned.

Portsmouth boss: Six changes sounds like a lot

And with the match subsequently abandoned, it remains to be seen whether they will be offered another opportunity to impress on Tuesday at Swansea (7.45pm).

Mousinho told The News: ‘Six changes sounds like a lot, but, if you go through it, we had Andre suspended and the two centre-halves injured, so there’s three which were enforced.

‘I sort of count the fourth as Terry (Devlin) coming back in after suspension, it’s one we were probably going to make anyway. So that leaves two changes for the six.

‘We brought Swifty and Chappers into the starting XI and mixed things about a bit. We looked at the way Charlton play and wanted to do something slightly different with the front line.

‘Ultimately, we have plenty of players in there who are able to play. With Swift and Chaplin, you’re bringing in a huge amount of Championship experience - and Chappers played in the Premier League last year. So we were really confident going in.

‘Them coming in was a bit to do with their substitute appearances against Bristol City, but you also have to take into account how players have trained. Minhyeok has been right at it since he came out of the side as well.

‘We’re trying to find the right solution at the moment. What we don’t want to do is just keep sticking at the same thing hoping for the best, because we haven’t been good enough in recent weeks.’

Pompey hopeful of Josh Knight

It is hoped Knight will be back in contention for Swansea, although the Blues are waiting to learn the full extent of Poole’s ankle injury, which was sustained in training on Friday.

Offering cover on the bench for both was first-year scholar Ashton Sizer, a 17-year-old central defender including for his second squad of the campaign.

With Pompey already without Connor Ogilvie through the knee ligament injury sustained against Wrexham last month, the highly-regarded youngster was again called up.

Sizer, who has trained with the first-team this season, was previously named in Mousinho’s 20-man squad for the 3-2 defeat at Hull in November.

‘Regan rolled his ankle in training’

Pompey’s head coach added: ‘Regan was set to start, he rolled his ankle in training on Friday so we’ll wait to see the prognosis there.

‘Josh hasn’t trained all week, he was struggling with his back. Out of the two, he would be more likely to come back for Tuesday.

‘If we had made a tactical change anyway, you would have seen one of those on the bench at Charlton.’

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