‘The fact is…’: Portsmouth boss feels heat as relegation pressure's ramped up for QPR
Pompey know they can fall into the Championship relegation places if they don’t deliver at QPR. John Mousinho’s message is clear as the relegation dogfight intensifies.
John Mousinho has called for his players to show their mettle as the Championship relegation heat is reaped up.
The Pompey boss acknowledged the pressure is being ramped up, as his side find themselves being pulled deeper into the second-tier survival dogfight with nine games to go this term.
Mousinho: ‘We want to be side who doesn’t respond negatively to pressure’
The Blues know they could go into the international break in the bottom three, if they don’t deliver at QPR on Saturday.
That means Mousinho’s side need to arrest a run of one point from a possible 15 at Loftus Road, with his players needing to show they can handle the relegation heat.
Mousinho said: ‘We have the break after, so we want to go into it with a win.
‘Everything would feel a lot better if we won the game, certainly in terms of the points total.
‘It would feel better, the impact psychologically of not winning games when we’ve been on top has been difficult to take.
‘But I would rather be a side losing games playing well, rather than losing games getting blown away. I think there’s a lot of hope there.
‘I don’t actually think the break has any relevance to the weekend, but the fact is we want to be a side who doesn’t respond negatively to the pressure of the league position being where it is.
‘Hopefully it happens that we produce a result when we don’t have the buffer. If we do that like we have in the past then great.’
Pompey’s run of four defeats from five is a bleak statistic, with their lack of firepower a clear issue behind those results.
The general level of performance does not point to a team in crisis, however, with the Blues dominating their opponents in terms of possession, passes and shots on goal.
Mousinho isn’t hiding away from his side’s faults, but feels there’s cause for optimism in terms of Pompey’s displays.
He added: ‘We need to improve, but it’s not about ripping it up and starting again.
‘I think last year we did lose two games going into the international break, but it clearly didn’t have too much of an impact. When we came back we beat Blackburn and ended up securing our status in the division.
‘Everyone is focussed on trying to get the win, but we know it’s not as easy as that. We know we have a lot to play for, so we have to go there and win the fight.’