Pompey boss John Mousinho reacts to the Watford controversy and previews the Championship trip to Bristol City.
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00:00Here with Pompey boss John Massino. John, a frantic and frenetic and a lot to be proud
00:06about about that performance but some talking points in the wake of the game. Tom Cleverley
00:10having some things to say about yourself. What was your reaction to that?
00:14Yeah, look it's, the game was, it was a good game of championship football I suppose and
00:19we've ended up losing the game and we've got to take that on the chin, absolutely. So yeah,
00:25very disappointed I think in the manner that we lost the game. I think we were well worth
00:29the point at the very least and maybe could have nicked it towards the back end. So I
00:33think there was a lot of frustration yesterday in amongst the changing room, a lot of frustration
00:37with the staff as well. And yeah, and that was it and we'll always look at ourselves
00:42and look at what we could have done better. And yeah, that was it really. As far as anything
00:46external goes, I genuinely, you know, I'm not just saying this for the camera, I don't
00:50care. The second I start caring about what Tom Cleverley says then whack me over the
00:54head and tell me I'm doing the wrong job, unless he buys a football club. In that case
00:58I'll start paying attention to what he says.
01:00You obviously asked a question about his player who caused quite an inflammatory flashpoint
01:04at the end of the game. I guess that was, you just gave an assessment of what happened
01:08there.
01:09I just, yeah, I mean my response was what would happen if one of my players did it.
01:12So that was it, I stick by it. One of my players does that, you're not playing for Portsmouth
01:16again.
01:17And of course, you know, your conduct on the side, you're comfortable with your behaviour?
01:23Yeah, look, I took the booking for an untidy bench. So yeah, what happened was that in
01:30the aftermath, no one really knew what was going on. It wasn't anything that I'd said
01:35to the fourth official. I think it was because we had quite a few people up, a couple of
01:38people on the pitch. So yeah, I took the booking for the untidy bench, which I think the buck
01:44has to stop for someone, which is absolutely fine. The big question I posed to all the
01:47officials on the day was, that is, if you're going to book me for that, I think they should
01:53take a very, very strong look at what happened on the Watford bench throughout the game and
01:58also for the second goal as well. So they can't have it both ways, the officials, is
02:01what I'm saying, can't have it both ways. So yeah, I feel really agreed by that someone.
02:05I think it's a really, really poor referee.
02:07Okay, let's follow up. You had a conversation with the referee. Could you, any sentiments
02:12on what happened there? Or does that remain private?
02:14No, I think, you know what, I think the amount of effort the lads put into the game and the
02:20amount of money that Portsmouth fans spent travelling to watch the game, I think there's
02:25going to be times when we haven't performed well enough away from home and they can be
02:29disgusted with the Portsmouth performance. But I think they're also probably owed an
02:33explanation as to what they saw and why it went wrong. I think the long and short of
02:40it is that the entire refereeing unit got it wrong. It wasn't a penalty. The referee's
02:44initial assessment is that it's a goal kick. So clearly the referee thinks there's no foul.
02:50The referee's got the best possible view to ascertain if they do decide it's a foul when
02:54it's changing their minds, whether it's inside the box or outside the box. The assistant
02:58referee hasn't got that view. There's no need for the assistant referee to get involved.
03:01I don't know why he gets involved, but he does. He gets involved, decides that it's
03:06a Stonewall penalty. I think if you're going to do that as an assistant referee, you have
03:09to be sure. He's not sure. He guesses because it's clearly outside the box. We've seen that.
03:13And I thought the whole process then was wrong. It went too far. I think that's the best way
03:25to say it, is that when the dust settled, there's no doubt that the refereeing unit
03:31as a whole got that one wrong.
03:33Obviously, you don't want costly decisions to go against your team. The process was the
03:39word that was in my head. That seemed to be what your issue is, rather than the actual
03:42decision per se.
03:43Yeah, absolutely. I can live with the subjective decisions, get subjective decisions wrong.
03:48I will question them, obviously. I'll question refereeing decisions. But it was the process
03:52there. We constantly get told when we speak to fourth officials all the time, and we speak
03:57to linesmen, we say, come on, line, have you seen that? Come on, fourth, have you seen
04:00that? I say, look, the referee's reffing the game. Let the referee reff the game. We've
04:03got one view. The referee's got the other view. He's in charge. Let him reff the game.
04:08So that's what I was expecting to happen. And yeah, the referee reffed the game one
04:14way. The assistant reffed the game the other way. And I somehow came to the conclusion
04:18that it was a penalty.
04:20I think at the very worst, everybody's in agreement that at the very worst, it's a free
04:24kick. But yeah, there were some worrying signs about the whole process there, some really
04:29worrying signs.
04:31Is that a recurring thing for yourself? Is that a frustration if it happens on multiple
04:36occasions across the season?
04:39Yeah, it can be. We've spoken about this now, and I've obviously been happy to answer the
04:43questions. I think the reports to the fans are due an explanation. I don't want to get
04:48too wrapped up in it, because we still should deal with a lot of points in the game a lot
04:53better than we do, particularly the second goal. And that's happened in a couple of other
04:58games when things maybe haven't quite gone away. But I think overall, maybe when you're
05:03down there and you're scrapping at the bottom of the league, those big decisions just feel
05:07bigger. They feel bigger because they've got a bit more of a consequence. And maybe last
05:10year when decisions didn't go away, we just dealt with things a bit better. If we would
05:13have conceded a penalty away from home, maybe we'd go on and win the game. So it's slightly
05:16different, and everything's brushed over.
05:19But yeah, the big decisions now that have seemed to rack up, they always feel a bit
05:24more painful when you think, oh, that would have been a really interesting game if we'd
05:28have held on to the goal lead. Because for all of Watford's possession, they didn't actually
05:32hurt us after half-time and even after the goal. Nick had to make one save, but apart
05:36from that, there wasn't a huge amount until the sort of calamitous errors that led to
05:41the second goal. So yeah, that would have been an interesting one. But I suppose the
05:46Norwich game, we felt a bit aggrieved as well. Swansea felt slightly aggrieved. So yeah,
05:51I think it's important to make sure that we do focus on our own performance, but also
05:55at the same time, I think everybody was scratching their head yesterday, so they owe an explanation.
06:00I think so too. How about how your team respond to adversity as well? When we're all feeling
06:06our blood's up and the pressure's up and the intensity and the cut and thrust of the game
06:10in those moments, how difficult is it to keep a cool head and how important is it to maintain
06:15that?
06:16Yeah, I mean, really good question. I think that what you want to do is, at certain points,
06:22take the emotion of the game and go with it. And if you feel aggrieved by a refereeing
06:26decision, sometimes it's good because it can spur you on and sometimes slightly go over
06:30the top. And maybe the emotions... To be fair, in the game, we were fine. There were a couple
06:39of flashpoints, I suppose, Callum Lange's challenge, where he doesn't actually catch
06:44Pollock, so he's absolutely fine, but that becomes a bit of a flashpoint because Watford
06:48end up surrounding the referee, running from 50 and 60 yards to make sure Callum's booked.
06:54And so, yeah, a few flashpoints maybe we could deal with slightly better after the game,
06:57but actually, as the game settled down, I was fine with it. I thought we were playing
07:01with some calm heads. And maybe, yeah, my only criticism is maybe we didn't play with
07:06enough aggression and emotion in that final 30 seconds of the game.
07:10Yeah, because it felt like there was a good amount of control. And there was a lot of
07:15positivity out of the performance, full stops out. Important, is it, not to let the momentum
07:20of what was another good display be lost moving forward now?
07:24Yeah, you have to find that balance. It's a really difficult balance to strike because
07:27we have to acknowledge that we didn't see the game out well enough, but at the same
07:31time, if you take out the last minute of the game, or if we do just head the ball away
07:35or deal with things a bit better, then we come away going, you know, that's a really,
07:39really good performance away from home, against the odds with the decision that's gone against
07:43us. We've taken a point against a side that's been good at home. And we move on, and we
07:48move on to Bristol City. And that's what we'd have been saying today. It would have been
07:51a very, very different style, I think, of press conference and probably a very, very
07:55different move. So we have to try and bear that in mind and make sure that we do take
07:58all of the positives out of what was largely a really good performance.
08:02And what a lot of people are asking, and perhaps you touched on that after the game, is now
08:06can you go again with the same intensity we've been seeing in such a short period?
08:11Yeah, I mean, we're going to have to. We haven't really got a choice, I think. That's the key.
08:15I don't think we can drop off. I think whenever we've dropped off, we've not been at the level
08:19and we've been punished. So we have to go with that physically. We have to be right
08:22at capacity every single game. We know that. And so we're going to have to go again. Everything's
08:27about recovery today. Everything will be about recovery again tomorrow. And it's a big away
08:31game and we've got to go and deal with it and make sure we are as close to full capacity
08:36as possible.
08:37And is it hard to kind of manage minutes with the players at the moment? You've obviously
08:41got a lot of central players in that starting XI at the moment. It's so important to you.
08:45Yeah, we've definitely probably got to think about that going into the game. Maybe if we
08:50didn't have the Swansea game after that, it might be a bit more straightforward. You think
08:54that we can just go all out and put everything, we'll leave everything we've got there at
08:58Ashton Gate. We have to be a bit more measured about that and think about a few bits here
09:03and there in terms of managing minutes and managing bodies. What we don't want to do
09:06first and foremost is pick up injuries. And then, yeah, I think freshness in terms of
09:10the way we play is going to be important.
09:11Just a couple of individuals off the back of yesterday. Is Connor Ogilvie now showing
09:15himself to be a championship performer?
09:17Well, I know there were some question marks early on in the season. I think Connor took
09:22a few minutes to adjust to the level, which was something we were happy to speak about.
09:26I think he could count himself pretty unlucky in terms of the run of fixtures that we had
09:31obviously against some of the bigger boys. But in the first few games, he found himself
09:35up against the likes of Dan James at Leeds, then Ogbene, who then subsequently went to
09:40Ipswich for a multi-million pound move against Luton, then Isaiah Jones, I think then Patrick
09:47Roberts. It just sort of snowballed from there. Once Connor's adjusted, I think he's been
09:54superb in the last couple of weeks. You saw the amount of defending that he did yesterday
10:00and how difficult he made the game for Barra in particular. I think we got very little
10:05change out of him. He defended really, really well. Last week we saw a bit more of the attacking
10:10side of Connor Ogilvie at Framton Park when we played Coventry as well. So, yeah, I think
10:14overall it's been a fantastic second quarter of the season for Connor.
10:19We just saw the examples of his determination not to give up when it looked like Barra's
10:23four of the essential things of yesterday. He's a fine operator. He kicked round him
10:28and it just looked like he'd got round him and Connor would come back and sweep in and
10:31not give up the ball. That determination is obviously essential to his game.
10:35Yeah, Connor's a really good defender. A really, really good one-on-one defender. Comfortable
10:38on the ball, he's a really good outlet and he can provide a lot going forward as well.
10:41I think that's where we start with Connor, making sure that he's really defensively solid.
10:45He always has been since I've been at the football club. Very, very reliable. And I
10:48think now he's adjusted to the level and some of the wingers he's come up against, he's
10:51looked better and better each week.
10:52How hard must it be for a player that steps up and they know you're going against the
10:56calibre of players you're playing against every week? So, you don't want to be done
10:59for pacing behind and you maybe concede ground or not get out to those crosses quite as quickly.
11:05It must be a real balancing act for an operator in that position.
11:09Yeah, it's tough. It's tough, especially with the fact that sometimes sides are going to
11:13get the ball out to wingers and you're going to be 1v1 with a full-back. And that's the
11:18trade-off, I think. We want to try and press aggressively, but sometimes if you do that,
11:23get picked off, you find yourself 1v1 with a winger and they're at you. So, you just
11:26have to defend well. You have to defend aggressively, try and engage outside the box if you can,
11:30work your feet. And I actually thought both full-backs did it really well yesterday.
11:34I thought Zac had a really good game on the other side as well. Defending well, making
11:38sure they stayed on their feet. Yeah, that was probably a slight disappointment with
11:42the penalty as well. My take to Fred is, if Barr beats you on the outside and he beats
11:47you, it's fine. But just stay on your feet, work hard, work his feet and make him beat you.
11:52Yeah, I was just going to lead into Zac Swanson. Both ended the pitch yesterday with a real
11:56standout performance.
11:57Yeah, excellent finish for the goal. Zac's got bags of technical quality that we've known
12:01about and not a huge amount of opportunity to get forward yesterday. But when he did,
12:05he did it really well. And yeah, then I think, you know, Martin Lucci in the first half,
12:09he got subbed at half-time. I don't think Zac, I say don't think Zac could have done
12:13anything about the goal. He definitely couldn't because he was sat on a bench at the time.
12:16And then, yeah, when Vata came on, he gave him a different problem. Really, really good
12:21young winger, I think, that he was faced. And he did really well. He obviously took
12:25the booking later on and we thought it was best to freshen things up and bring Terry
12:29on. But really pleased with Zac's performance.
12:31It's really interesting that right-back position now for yourself. It looks like there's
12:34a kind of a front-line operator there. There's obviously been a number now across the season.
12:38Yeah, we've got really good competition. Jordan Williams coming back and he took part
12:42in training today for a small part of it. So, he should be back in the fold, I think.
12:46If not available for Bristol City, then for the Swansea game. So, yeah, really good competition
12:51I think across that spot and some excellent options.
12:54Just touched on Jordan there, but how's Matt Ritchie?
12:57Matt's OK. He took a whack in that challenge. I think that ended in a yellow card for one
13:05of the Watford players, despite their protest otherwise. So, he's OK. He was forced off
13:13injured because of the challenge, but I think he should settle down. He should be available
13:17for Bristol City. It's not going to be too bad.
13:19I don't think he wanted to give it up though, did he?
13:21No, he didn't. And that's my job there to protect him and make sure that if something
13:25breaks and if he needs to be there at full capacity, I speak about that a lot, I need
13:29to be at full capacity, then he's got to be there. He's got to make sure that he is in
13:35every moment working as he should work. So, I just looked at it, I thought he was struggling
13:40about the pitch. He's never going to give up. He's never going to let the team down
13:45at all. So, I just thought it was a better option for us to have fresh legs coming on.
13:49Jacob Farrell close now?
13:51Jacob's close. Took part in training again today with Jordan Williams, probably about
13:54a week behind Jordan. So, early January we're looking at.
13:57Any other business for the other chaps that are injured at the moment?
14:00Are there any changes there?
14:02No other changes. Conor's been out on the grass again today. He's still not close to
14:06training, but still not training with us. But he's the closest one. I think everyone
14:10else is still out for a while.
14:12Cheers.