Portsmouth boss' glowing Adrian Segecic assessment after Australian's eye-catching friendly displays

John Mousinho has declared a ‘very, very promising start’ from newcomer Adrian Segecic after an eye-catching early Pompey impact.

The 20-year-old registered a goal and an assist during his opening two appearances in the English game following his arrival from Sydney FC.

Just 13 minutes into his maiden Blues outing, he netted in Tuesday night’s friendly at Woking with a well-taken left-footed finish during a man-of-the-match showing in the 2-0 victory.

The following evening at Farnborough, he set up Harry Clout to score in the 62nd minute, having squared the ball from the right, as the visitors enjoyed a 5-0 success against the National South club.

With his energy, enthusiasm and, of course, influence in front of goal, it has been an encouraging beginning for Segecic to date - and Mousinho is delighted with him so far.

Portsmouth boss: ‘We are very, very pleased with him’

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘It has been a very, very promising start from Segs.

‘He took his goal really well against Woking, but the most impressive part of his game that day was his pressing, he led really well from the front and showed quality as well to put the ball into the back of the net.

‘He has been very bright, very energetic. What we have seen this week is a lot of what we see every day in training. He makes things happen, he works really, really hard, and that’s the most important thing for us.

‘We speak about the press at the top end of the pitch, we know how important that is for us, and Segs really led that. We are very, very pleased with him so far.

‘He’s the sort of player who excites fans, excites coaching staff and is very, very good to play with. That’s the minimum we require in terms of the output and the work rate from someone like Adrian - and he’s got the quality to punish sides.’

18 goals for Sydney last season

With Pompey using 22 players in each of this week’s two friendlies, Segecic was allocated 45 minutes on pitch in each fixture - like everybody else selected.

Nonetheless, there have still been enough glimpses from the Australian to suggest he could prove to be a fine signing for the Blues, who last month paid an undisclosed fee for his services.

There is also an eye for goal that saw him register 18 times for Sydney last season, while finishing as the A-League’s joint-leading scorer.

Indeed, had it not been for the athleticism of Woking substitute goalkeeper Craig Ross, Segecic would have scored more than one on his Blues bow.

‘He does take a lot of shots’

Mousinho added: ‘If you look back at the success he had last season, being the top scorer in the A-League, he does take a lot of shots.

‘He needs to get the right balance between sometimes sliding in the wingers or the centre-forward versus taking a shot. But we don’t want to take too much of that out of his game.

‘He's got such a good strike with the left foot and right foot that he’s going to get a lot of goals - and that’s the really pleasing thing for us.’

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