Portsmouth boss’ relegation verdict after critical Leicester City victory

The Blues moved to the cusp of retaining their second-tier status with their third win in eight days, as Ibane Bowat’s winner gave them a 1-0 success over their relegation rivals.

The win means Leicester can no longer catch Pompey, while Mousinho’s men are seven points clear of Oxford United in the final relegation berth.

Pompey could be mathematically safe as they go to promoted Coventry City on Tuesday, depending on the result against Frank Lampard’s side and Oxford’s clash with Wrexham.

Mousinho doesn’t feel the job is done, however, as he assessed the relegation picture.

He said: ‘I feel relief. It wasn’t pretty and we made some strange decisions at the end but we managed to ride it out and any luck we had today may level up for the run-up to the QPR game, when the ball didn’t fall for us or we didn’t get the breaks we deserved.

‘We invited pressure on ourselves, made strange decisions and didn’t manage the game well.

‘People on the outside will think we’re in a healthy position - it doesn’t feel like that internally. It never felt like that at any point when we were top of the league in League One.

‘That’s just the way my mind works. It felt like that last year, so we need to take care of ourselves and try to pick up the points required on Tuesday to get the job done.’

It was far from vintage Pompey, as they were dealt early blows as they lost Terry Devlin and Keshi Anderson to hamstring injuries. That impacted their fluency, but Mousinho was just pleased his team found a way to win.

Mousinho added: ‘On Tuesday we managed the game so well and were so professional, it was different today.

‘There was the pressure and we had tired bodies. When your tired your mind doesn’t always work so well.

‘Our boys are working at full capacity, but we got through it. We got through it with brilliant goalkeeping and brilliant blocking.

‘It was 100 per cent about getting the job done. We’ve shown very different performances over the past five games.

‘It wasn’t one for the purist, but we got the job done.

‘We had to adjust a little bit and adjust our game, which the boys did pretty well. I was really pleased Ibane came on and got the winner. It was stop-start and that fed into a different type of game.’