What toppling leaders Middlesbrough means to John Mousinho as Portsmouth boss claims another impressive Championship scalp
Beating Premier League-bound Leeds United in the Championship last season was a second-tier high for the Pompey boss - but now there’s a rival for that afternoon to savour.
John Mousinho surveyed taking down Championship leaders Middlesbrough and smiled: It feels brilliant.
And the Pompey boss admitted he could see parallels with last season’s highlight reel victory over Leeds United, as his team inflicted a first league defeat on Rob Edwards’ side.
Mousinho: This performance has been coming, it feels brilliant
Minhyeok Yang was the hero as he got the only goal of the game at Fratton Park, as his team picked up a steely and hard-earned three points.
The goal arrived after Pompey had responded well to a fast start from the visitors, who had early pressure before Mousinho’s men gained some impetus. The second half was a tale of the Blues showing resolve to get the job done, with Boro having pressure but restricted to a single shot on target.
It’s another occasion to savour at PO4 for Mousinho as his managerial stock continues to grow, with the head coach basking in a display he felt his team were building up to.
Mousinho said: ‘Maybe because it’s early in the season, but I feel this performance has been coming. It feels brilliant.
‘It feels brilliant, but who knows how high it’s going to rank eventually? I guess there’s shades of the Leeds game, when Leeds were top of the league. I guess that was a bit later in the season, when the relegation pressure was more on then.
‘I, in a perverse way, enjoyed the afternoon and in another way hated it, because it was so stressful but it was a very, very important win for us.’
Undoubtedly one of the standout traits from Pompey’s win was their defensive strength, against a side who have shown attacking threat to chime with their own stoic qualities. Edwards’ men were broadly reduced to long-range efforts, with Sontje Hansen and Matt Targett probably having the pick of their efforts after the break.
Pompey had an organised defensive shape Boro struggled to open up, and when they did the central defensive pairing of Josh Knight and Regan Poole were in indomitable mood.
Pompey boss on Boro win: We showed two ways of doing it
Mousinho loved what he saw from his side - especially after they gave up a first-half lead in 11 second-half minutes against Watford on Wednesday night.
He added: ‘It’s going to have to be the case against the top sides that we need to defend well.
‘Middlesbrough were top of the league for a reason. I think they’ve scored one of most goals in the league and hardly conceded any as well, so it was always going to be tough.
‘In the first half we were very, very good and expansive on the ball. The second half was obviously a lot different. We were a lot deeper Middlesbrough made changes and tweaked the shape.
‘But if we have to defend like that, then great, that’s why we’ve got the centre-halves and the players we have on the pitch - the whole XI defended well.’