Pompey boss John Mousinho speaks to The News after the 3-0 win over Havant and Waterlooville
Pompey boss John Mousinho speaks to The News after the 3-0 win over Havant and Waterlooville and updates on transfer news, triallists, injuries and much more.
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00:00Here with Pompey boss John Massino after another decent night's work here against your North
00:05Tavern at Mortlakeville.
00:06Yeah, really happy with the night's work, everything about it I was delighted with.
00:09I thought the first ten minutes was a bit of a sticky period for us, haven't came out
00:13of the traps, they were at us.
00:15The centre forward was really physical which was great, I thought it was a really good
00:18test for the two young centre-halves, which is brilliant, that's exactly what we wanted
00:21and I played with Harvey a few years back so I'm really pleased with that.
00:25I thought once we settled into the game we played some really good stuff, especially
00:28as the first half went on, deserved a lead, maybe could have had a couple more and really
00:32pleased actually with the way the lads took on board a couple of bits at half-time, it
00:36wasn't a full run down like we usually do for a league game but they took on a few bits
00:40at half-time, came out in the second half and I thought we were just a lot more disciplined,
00:43the structure was there and we created a couple of really good opportunities, two of which
00:47we scored from, maybe you wouldn't consider Riley to be a good opportunity but I thought
00:52he played with a lot of confidence tonight and the third goal I thought was superb so
00:55a really well worked move.
00:57And then even more pleasing I suppose in a lot of senses was the fact that we had the
01:01nine academy players come on in the last half-hour and I thought they were a credit to themselves,
01:06a credit to the football club, I thought they battled hard, I thought they tried to play
01:09some football, they controlled the game largely, maybe could have conceded but also could have
01:14scored two or three at the other end so really, really pleased for them and that's a really
01:17good moment.
01:18One of the things I said to them there is we don't want this to be the pinnacle of their
01:23career by any means but I do remember playing for Brentford against Dagenham in a pre-season
01:28friendly, it was the first ever time I'd been involved in professional football and it was
01:32an amazing moment for me.
01:33I thought at that point, I thought no-one could ever take that away from me, I didn't
01:35expect to have a professional career off the back of it and the same goes for these boys
01:39and really pleased for them that they've come and they've managed to play in front of a
01:42few thousand Pompey fans and played really well.
01:47Also there's Harry to mention I think in the first half as well who ended up playing sixty
01:52minutes and played really well so really pleasing all together to have the ten academy
01:55players.
01:56When you've got a couple of trialists in, lies tend to gravitate towards them, I thought
01:59Baptiste tonight particularly in that first half, you dealt with the physical threat and
02:05good on the ball coming out as well.
02:07Yeah I thought really calm and composed on the ball and switched the ball a couple of
02:10times with both feet, looked nice and technically competent which you'd expect from a lad that's
02:15had that background and also I thought after a bit of a tricky first couple of challenges
02:20he grew into the game and became much more aggressive so I thought a performance on the
02:24whole for Jamal, I was really pleased for him and I thought he was excellent.
02:29He's had a time of it, he's had some tough times with illness, where do you stand with
02:34that at the moment?
02:35Yeah he's fully fit, he's firing, he had a loan last season and I think he's come back
02:43after that and he's hungry and he's willing to go.
02:45He's been on trial at another league club prior to coming to us and I think that was
02:50a successful trial but I think the lure of the step up to Portsmouth meant that he decided
02:56that he was going to just wait on a decision and come and see what another week did for
03:00us there.
03:01So in terms of fitness I think he's in really good shape and he looks like he's come back
03:05this pre-season with a bit between his teeth so yeah very, very happy for him.
03:08Is that very much a live situation moving forward now?
03:11Yeah we don't know how that's going to play out and we're not entirely sure how that fits
03:14in in terms of the squad but certainly something we're going to monitor and have a conversation
03:17with over the next couple of days and see what that looks like and there's lots of permutations
03:21going into next week in terms of what that does look like but I think what Jamal has
03:27done is given himself every chance of earning something somewhere, maybe here, we'll see
03:33what that looks like but he's given himself the best chance.
03:36And Sean Patton, Brighton Breezer, getting himself on the score sheet?
03:40Yeah really good finish, really good finish, probably a difficult game for him to get into
03:43particularly with the fact it was a possession-based game in the first half and sometimes the nines
03:47can go by the wayside because they're just occupying a sense of half but I thought Sean
03:51did in the second half what he's done really well and the reason we've brought him to the
03:54football club on trial is because his finishing has been excellent and he's looked sharp in
03:59the box, he's done that in training as well, there's plenty of sides to his game that Sean
04:03can improve but at 17 I think that's a real promising start to his career.
04:08He's done a lot for his 17 year old, he's played international football at under-19
04:11level and got on the score sheet and Finn Harps and Derry so he's progressing quite
04:16well for someone of that age.
04:17Yeah I think so and I think if you look at that game without the knowledge that he's
04:2217 you don't think he's a 17 year old centre-forward playing in a men's game and we think that
04:27about what he did the other night against Gosport and also what he's done in training
04:31as well so really pleased and really positive on him.
04:33Has he given himself a chance?
04:35Again I think he's given himself every chance, the trialists that we bring in, obviously
04:40we don't bring trialists in for the sake of it, we bring them in with a view to potentially
04:43signing them whether that pans out or not, it's very very difficult always as a trialist
04:47I think particularly when you're now trying to get into a championship squad but we'll
04:50review that, we'll have a look at what that situation is and then go from there.
04:53And you gave Riley Taylor the armband tonight, why did you do that?
04:56I think Riley's come back in really good nick and he had a really really tough season last
04:59year but he kept his head high, he was a massive part of the squad that ended up winning the
05:03league and whether he felt that or not I don't know but the way that he conducted himself
05:08last season, the way that he conducted himself in pre-season, I think he's thoroughly deserved
05:13it and Riley is a player that we want to keep encouraging those leadership qualities to
05:17come out and I think he was the outstanding candidate on the pitch and I think he led
05:22the boys very well and deserved his goal.
05:23And he's got that in his locker?
05:25Yeah apparently, I knew that driving out from the back, he certainly had that driving out
05:31from the back and he dropped the shoulder really well and he was very very comfortable
05:36in possession and dealt with that physical threat really well.
05:39I'm not entirely sure he had the 40-yard lob in the locker area but really really good goal.
05:45What's the state of play now with transfers and we're expecting things to move a bit more around this period?
05:52Yeah it's still really slow, the market as a whole has been really slow and the situation
05:56we're in at the moment is that we've been patient with a lot of deals.
06:00Where we are is that we're still in a really good position with a lot of the deals that
06:06we want to get done.
06:07The best way I think I can describe it is that when we have our lists for certain positions
06:11at the start of the summer, we obviously target the top of that list and for the majority
06:17of those, the target at the top of the list is still available.
06:20So it's not that we're missing out on any deals, it's just that the market's slow, clubs
06:27are holding on to players for a bit longer, clubs' demands are obviously whatever they
06:33are so we've got to make sure that we get the right deal there and we're really happy
06:37with where we are because we've still got the targets there if that makes sense, they've
06:39not fallen by the wayside.
06:41Last year the difference was that we had the targets and they just became available, they
06:46were available or they were on freeze.
06:48We had the sort of players that we wanted to bring in and we could get them done.
06:52We want to bring the right players into the football club, we want to bring championship
06:54quality players in, we don't want to compromise on that and we feel we're in a good position
06:59and the minute we have to move on from a target we'll move on and we'll go to the next one
07:02but at the moment we don't have to do that.
07:03So we're very, very happy with where we are with three weeks to go in the season and of
07:06course we want to see things moving but at the minute we're satisfied with where they
07:10are.
07:11I'm sure supporters want signings yesterday but there's a reason for sort of not sticking
07:17and waiting to twist at the moment really?
07:18Yeah and we do as well, it would be ideal if we have every single signing that we're
07:22going to make in the first day of pre-season but the second best scenario is getting the
07:28players that you want in at the right time.
07:30The worst scenario for me is getting the wrong players in at the right time so that's
07:34the way we want to play it and sometimes it happens very quickly and this transfer window
07:38I think everything has happened in a slower manner, not just at Portsmouth and we want
07:43to get the right players and we're going to wait and do that.
07:45Just finally, the state of play going into the Bogda game tomorrow, I mean Colby, Evan
07:49White etc, any other injuries as well?
07:52Yeah we don't expect to see either of those tomorrow although both in good places that's
07:58absolutely fine and we're still being cautious on them.
08:01Everything else I think in terms of injuries and illnesses is absolutely fine, we have
08:06had a couple of illnesses this week, nothing too bad so we don't expect any of those to
08:10miss out tomorrow and the strength I think of the squad at this time of the season is
08:14really important because we go into these two games in two days and three games in five
08:18days so we have to make sure that we're all at it and we're nice and sharp.