John Mousinho told his players “The response is all we care about now.”
Speaking to Portsmouth FC’s media team after a 4-0 humbling at home to Blackpool, and the end of a 27-game unbeaten run, the Pompey boss was frank and honest about the team’s performance but insists that focus must immediately shift to Tuesday’s trip to Burton Albion.
“The response is all we care about now. Want them to be disappointed tonight, go home and watch the game tonight but I need them back Monday morning positive and ready to go to Burton on Tuesday night.
“The run was a brilliant achievement, particularly this season as we’ve been right up there and right at it. A lot of positives have come out of it, and we need to leverage those positives going forward. This will be seen as a blip if we go and get a result on Tuesday night, but if we don’t then the whole unbeaten run will be worth very little. We need to get our heads down and go again.”
The Blues were incredibly poor, and even had temporary-skipper Joe Morrell sent off for two bookable offenses in the second half. Mousinho completely agreed with the referees decision.
“It looked like a second yellow to me so no complaints about that. He’s far more experienced than that, he knows he doesn’t need to go to ground at that stage and obviously he’s very disappointed with himself. There are ones where I’ll happily defend him like I did against Peterborough, and then ones today where you can’t.”
A poor day for Pompey fans in PO4, but all focus turns to a recovery on Tuesday night. Can Pompey bounce back, or will their customary winter meltdown rear it’s ugly head again?
