Middlesbrough 2-2 Pompey: John Mousinho's post-match verdict
Pompey boss John Mousinho chats to The News after the Blues' 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00What's your verdict on that?
00:03A really good point. I think we're obviously going to be disappointed, a bit like Ellen
00:06Road where we come away from the game going into injury time with the lead and it's obviously
00:11chance bars that we end up drawing the game. So, there's a lot of disappointment from that
00:15point of view but I think in the balance of the game, Middlesbrough deserve to win it
00:18and we didn't quite do enough in the second half to hold on to our lead. We played really
00:23well in the first half, three large spells I thought. Thoroughly deserved the lead going
00:26into half-time, caused a few problems and I think naturally when you come away to places
00:29like this, you do sit deep and there's probably a bit too much panic on the ball. We didn't
00:34quite settle down enough and it's a really good lesson as we go up through the levels
00:38when we play against sides like this. When we're on it, we can compete and as soon as
00:42we drop even five per cent, then sides like this take on us.
00:45How pleased with the attacking game plan? Because there were gaps, particularly on turnover
00:49ball, there were moments you could hurt them going forward.
00:52Yeah, I thought we deliberately picked the side for that reason. We wanted to have that
00:58focal point with Chris playing up front and then three runners in behind him and also
01:01we felt we had enough in behind that to actually get a grip on the game in terms of possession
01:06as well, which when we did, we did put our foot down more in the first half and we looked
01:08like a good side. So, yeah, really pleased with how that went. I thought the attacking
01:13intent was there. Sometimes you're not quite as attacking as we would like to have been,
01:18particularly from last season where we pretty much went all out against most sides. We've
01:21got to be careful getting the balance right there. But yeah, overall really pleased with
01:25the fact that we scored another two goals and that's a pretty good return. I think sometimes
01:31it's an interesting one when you go up and leave and then struggle to create and score.
01:33That's the one thing at the moment I think we're doing well.
01:35Will Norris in the wars today. How is he after the game? Two stoppages for him.
01:39Yeah, I think the first one he ended up cutting his elbow for the first goal. The second one
01:44he took a shot by where it really hurts and that was a brilliant save actually because
01:48he stood up and you see a lot of goalkeepers going down and going early and not taking
01:52it. So, really pleased for Will. I thought he was excellent last week, excellent again today
01:56but he's okay. Where was Conor Shox in today? Shox was ill so that was a real blow for us
02:01because we don't have any depth at the moment but centre-half. But I thought Jordan came in
02:07and did magnificently well. I thought actually Swanee came in and played really well as well
02:10so that was really, really pleasing to watch. When you come here and you know you're going
02:14to have to defend, how important are plays like that and steps up?
02:17Massively important. We're slightly thin at the moment and we know that. We've got a lot
02:20of injuries. We still want to do a couple of bits of business before the end of the transfer window
02:24and we've got to make sure we get through it, get through to the international break and strengthen
02:28more in terms of the players that we've actually got in the building and once we do that I think
02:32we'll have a bit more of a squad to pick from and I think we'll be in a better position. So,
02:36I thought excellent today from the lads that came in and just fit themselves into different
02:41positions. We probably looked at the front four and all four of them have played in a different
02:45position at times throughout their careers than they actually played today but we thought it was
02:49a super game so I'm really happy with that. Harvey Blair came in yesterday and he's in
02:54traffic days now. What made you bring him in? Harvey's a really promising young talent and
03:00I think that he's the sort of player that we'd like to bring to the football club
03:05on a permanent. So, obviously last year we had the likes of that coming in from
03:10Norwich, Alex Robertson coming in from Man City. Unfortunately, those players have got to go back
03:14to their permanent clubs at the end of the loan spells and to get someone like Harvey with a huge
03:18amount of attention and a lot of talent to come into the building with on a permanent and for us
03:23to be able to do that and to develop him as a player and also to affect the first team at the
03:26same time, we're really happy. Reports this morning in Italy that Tino Angurin's off to
03:30Empoli. Is there anything you know or anything you'd like to shed on that? I honestly have no
03:34idea. I've switched off the transfer front for the last 48 hours and I know Rich has been busy
03:40behind the scenes so I'll catch up with him tonight.