John Mousinho admitted Pompey should have hurt 10-man Southampton more as they fell to south-coast derby defeat.

But the Blues boss insisted he had no issue with how he men handled the occasion, as they went down to a 1-0 reverse at St Mary’s Stadium.

Pompey weren’t able to deliver a tangible return from pressure on the home side, as Cameron Bragg was sent off before the break.

Mousinho’s side had more shots on goal and touches in the opposition box at the interval and pushed forward after the restart.

They were unable to create more to threaten, however, as they fell to a first league loss to their fierce rivals in 22 years.

Mousinho said: ‘Southampton had their chance at the start of the game and the goal was a carbon copy, which was disappointing.

‘They showed that ruthlessness which, for all we created in the second half we couldn’t repeat.

‘We created some really good opportunities and got behind the back line really well.

‘We had some excellent spells where we probably should have hurt them more.

‘I came away thinking a lot of time it’s hard to break down sides with 10 men, but we broke them down really well.

‘We probably did that with 11 men, but a couple of the balls which came into the box weren’t quite there.

‘It wasn’t a performance where we didn’t threaten. We did threaten, but it was a game where it didn’t quite drop for us and we weren’t able to take the game by the scruff of the neck and put the ball into the back of the net.’

When assessing Pompey’s performance, Mousinho felt his team’s shortcomings weren’t a consequence of handling the derby occasion.

He added: ‘The two good chances Southampton had came from transition.

‘The goal came from us losing the ball in the middle of the park. We just switched off in that left-back area.

‘I didn’t think they overly hurt us from their possession.

‘We did have a couple of opportunities in the first half when they didn’t get the touches in the box.

‘I felt the players handled the occasion really well. There was no issue there for me.

‘My only criticism was we could’ve been a little bit more lively in the first half with the second balls and being a bit more intense in the way we played.

‘Maybe that was from not having played for three weeks, but it was the same for Southampton.

‘It was one on the whole where I didn’t have an issue with how the players handled the occasion, but a bit more was required from the performance.’