Portsmouth boss’ south-coast derby vow as he bids to level playing field with Southampton
The bookies have the south-coast derby as a ‘foregone conclusion’. John Mousinho has been successful in levelling the playing field with Championship rivals before - and is out for more of the same at St Mary’s Stadium.
John Mousinho eyed closing the gap on Pompey’s sworn rivals as he plotted delivering south-coast derby glory.
And the Blues boss dismissed Southampton’s position as big bookies’ favourites, going into Sunday’s high-noon showdown at St Mary’s Stadium.
Mousinho: ‘We’re not playing against anything other than 11 men’
Mousinho believes the pressure will be on the home side to deliver victory and return to the Premier League - but also acknowledged the weight of carrying the hopes of the Fratton Faithful into battle with their foes.
The home team are heavily favoured by the oddsmakers at a best-priced 3/4 with Pompey available at 18/5, while many impartial pundits are leaning towards the relegated Premier League coming out on top on home soil.
That isn’t fazing Mousinho for a second, however, who has successfully toppled opposition with much greater resources on his side’s Championship journey so far.
He said: ‘I think everyone is just really excited.
‘I guess it doesn’t make a difference to us internally as a playing staff who we’re playing against, in terms of budgets, club size and club history - because we do come up against clubs who’ve been relegated from the Premier League recently and have parachute payments and significant investment.
‘For us, we have to approach every game and make sure we don’t look at that gap.
‘We’re not playing against anything other than 11 men and we have to have that same attitude as we have every weekend.
‘I guess the way we’ve started the season should give us some encouragement going into the game, though we have to be wary of a strong side and one who’s come down from the Premier League, been at the top level and managed to spend a lot of money in the summer as well.
‘I think it’s a brilliant game, a really interesting game.’
Mousinho on Southampton: Bookies say it’s foregone conclusion - thankfully it’s not
Mousinho is clear in his conviction Pompey are now narrowing the gap with rivals from along the M27, after an encouraging start to the season which sees them above Southampton in the formative Championship table for the first time in 5,229 days.
The 39-year-old is also realistic enough to know there’s still a distance to travel until his club have completed that voyage.
Mousinho feels Southampton now have to take on the load of expectation, while making no attempt to hide the demands on his own team.
He added: ‘Ultimately, if you look at the two sides we’ve managed to close the gaps in terms of the leagues.
‘We’re at the very beginning of getting the club back to where it should be and that is a long, old journey which will take a long time.
‘We have to progress steadily and have been on the brink of liquidation while Southampton were at the other end of the scale.
‘We’re trying to bridge that gap and it’s not quite bridged yet, if you look at the pure figures and spending through the summer.
‘But there will be a lot of pressure to win a football game and there’s a lot of pressure on Southampton to get out of this league and back to the Premier League. They’ve spent like a team who need to do it this summer and, for us, we play a lot of teams like that.
‘That doesn’t take the pressure away from us, we have a huge amount of pressure and burden to win this football game.
‘But if you just look at the external factors that’s fine. If football matches and horse races were always based on how the bookies priced things up it would be a foregone conclusion - but thankfully it’s not.’