'I found it funny': Portsmouth boss on THAT Will Still spat - and an offer new Southampton head coach can't refuse
On Sunday, Fratton Park will host its first league south-coast derby for more than 14 years
There’ll be no friendly welcoming from the ferocious Fratton faithful, yet John Mousinho has promised a more hospitable reception to Southampton’s boss than the one he received from Will Still.
Fratton Park will stage the first league south-coast derby for more than 14 years on Sunday, with Pompey fans relishing cranking up the intimidation factor to make it an uncomfortable return for their close rivals.
Matters off the pitch dominated September’s drab goalless draw at St Mary’s, centring on Mousinho’s lingering handshake on Still after the final whistle, later described by the then-Southampton boss as ‘strong’.
At the time, Pompey’s head coach laughed off the incident - although, tellingly, never received an invite for the customary post-match drink in the home manager’s office.
Still would subsequently last another nine matches before being dismissed by Southampton and replaced by Tonda Eckert, albeit following a successful caretaker spell in charge.
And, irrespective of Sunday’s outcome, the German will be offered the change to share a drink with the neighbours.
‘It’s a bit pathetic two grown men squabbling with each other’
Mousinho told The News: ‘We will offer Tonda a drink after Sunday’s game, absolutely. He can have whatever is in the fridge.
‘At St Mary’s obviously a lot was made of it with Will after the game. I thought he came in strong on the handshake and that was it. I thought it was a funny moment, to be honest.
‘I spoke (to the media) after the game about what both sets of fans would expect from their players, from the coaches, from everything. I was pretty clear we’ve got a lot of mutual respect between professionals.
‘But, ultimately, we are not friends, we’re there to try to win a game. We’re not there to make friends with anyone.
‘I’ve had a few arguments (with managers) which haven’t been highlighted, I’ve had some really strong words. Myself and Frank Lampard had that bit of handbags on the bench and then we came in and had a drink afterwards. It was fine, we just laughed about it, it’s a bit pathetic two grown men squabbling with each other.
‘That happens a lot on the touchline, sometimes it spills over and sometimes there's a bit of tension in the tunnel afterwards and people don’t go in for a drink. Sometimes it’s absolutely fine, you shake hands, laugh and move on.
‘Will didn’t offer me a drink, it was left at that. We will always go in if we get invited - we didn’t get invited that day. That’s fine. Whether we win, lose or draw, if the opposition coaching staff invite us in, we’ll go in. We always invite people into Fratton.
‘At St Mary’s, we set up to try to not let Southampton get a foothold in the game - and we did that really well after three or four minutes. We were dominant in the first half, so naturally the atmosphere dropped.
‘It became a bit more difficult for us in the second half, but I suppose a drab 0-0 away from home with the pressure of that first south-coast derby wasn’t a terrible result for us. I expect it to be a different game on Sunday.’
The last time Fratton Park hosted a league south-coast derby was in December 2011, when Michael Appleton was manager.
The struggling Blues fell behind to Rickie Lambert’s second-half goal, only to level six minutes from time through Emsworth lad Joel Ward for a 1-1 draw in front of a crowd of 19,879.
And Mousinho is relishing another special Fratton Park atmosphere on Sunday.
‘There have been some really special Fratton Park nights’
He added: ‘We’ve had it time and time again over the three years we’ve been here, there have been some really special Fratton Park nights.
‘Some really stand out, the evening game we had against Bolton in the first season (February 2023) and then the one in the promotion-winning season (December 2023), the night we beat Barnsley to win League One.
‘When we beat Oxford with Christian Saydee’s goal (March 2024), while there were so many last year because the home form was so good and our away form was pretty poor.
‘It has probably been slightly more difficult this year because we’ve not been quite as free-flowing and high-scoring as last season, but we’ve still had some incredible atmospheres at home.
‘The fans have got us through plenty of those games, particularly Blackburn and Charlton last month, while Arsenal was brilliant for large parts of the game, even when we were losing.’