Pompey boss John Mousinho talks to The News ahead of Wednesday's visit of Plymouth Argyle to Fratton Park
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00:00John, I appreciate it's not been achieved yet, but how big of an achievement would it
00:06be to keep pumping in the Championship this season?
00:08It's the only thing that we've focused on at the moment and it wasn't necessarily the
00:13goal going into the season, sorry I should reframe that, but we weren't thinking just
00:19survival is what we want to achieve, we didn't quite know what the landscape of the Championship
00:23would be and what we didn't want to do is set our sights too low or too high, we just
00:27wanted to take every game as it came. I think pretty early on it became apparent that we
00:31needed just to focus on making sure we stayed in the league, so that has been the sole focus
00:35for pretty much the entire season and there's been times where that's probably looked much
00:41less likely than other times in the season, so we have to just keep going with that, keep
00:46our heads down, keep focused on it and make sure we just pick enough points to be safe.
00:52You must have reflected though to this point, where you've gone from bottom of the league
00:56to now 10 points clear of the relegation zone?
00:58Yeah, we've had some interesting times this year I think is a mild way to put it and there's
01:06been particularly when we had the run at the start of the season not picking up enough
01:10points and at times during the season where even when we were picking up points, some
01:13of the away performances and some of the results that we couldn't string consistently together
01:17just weren't good enough. We obviously were disappointed last week to lose at Luton but
01:24you go into that with at least the away win at Oxford, it wasn't a disastrous performance
01:29for 90 minutes at Luton like it has been for some of the away games and the previous away
01:33game was Sheffield United, so we feel like we're in better form coming into this period
01:38and I think if at any point during the season if we'd been sat here on some of those Wednesdays
01:43or some of the other press conferences and you'd have offered me 42 points with 10 games
01:47to go, I would have absolutely snapped your hand off, so on reflection I think we're in
01:51an okay position, we're much better off than we have been in previous parts of the season
01:55and we've just got to keep building on that.
01:57Do you not dare look ahead thinking you might stay up?
02:02We obviously have that as the ambition so we do look at that to a certain extent but
02:05we just don't want to get carried away with ourselves, that's the most important thing.
02:08I think it's really, really difficult at any level to make sure you take a lot of confidence
02:13from what we've got so far and how we played yesterday but just don't get too carried away
02:16because there's always something that's going to bite you around the corner. We've seen
02:19that in the Championship this year, any mistake is pounced upon and we've had so many times
02:25we've spoken after games where we've played okay, we've played alright but we've come
02:28away losing games and it's just because you do get punished and I think mentally the same
02:33applies if you ever think that you've cracked it or if you ever think that you've done the
02:36job before you've actually done it, I think that football's got a really, really harsh
02:39way of snapping back at you.
02:41And of course there's been so many tough times along the way to this point as well, injuries,
02:46games without a win, pressure building but you guys, the management team and also the
02:51players, you've kept going and going and now you're on the rise.
02:54Yeah, we were always realistic about where we were, I think that was the most important
02:59thing. We wanted to stay positive through the season but with a lot of realism, I spoke
03:03about that quite a lot in the first part of the season where we don't want to get too
03:07down and too negative about the position because we did think we could pick up points, we did
03:10think we could improve but at the same time, we had to be really realistic about what we
03:14were doing and the performances and some of the results that we were picking up so
03:18I think that helped, that sort of level of pragmatism and that level of realism and yeah,
03:24we've had to tweak a few things in terms of what we've done but we've always had a plan
03:28in terms of how are we going to get there.
03:30January was really big for us and we spoke extensively through the season about making
03:34sure we picked up enough points to be competitive in January.
03:37I think first of all to attract players to come in January and second of all just to
03:41be in a good position and I think we managed to do that so we've given ourselves half a
03:46platform. That's just the way it feels at the moment, half a job done and we've got
03:49a hell of a lot of work to do to make sure we finish it.
03:52You were saying yesterday, well you weren't saying, how many more points do you need?
03:56You keep saying the 50-point mark, realistically do you need fewer than 50 points?
04:01I don't know, maybe, maybe. We're not going to know until the end of the season and you
04:06can look historically, there's different points tallies that have kept sides in the league.
04:11I do think that 50 is a good shout this year for us and I know it's a bit of a generic
04:15one but I do think that would probably see us in a good place and to be honest, we've
04:21still got loads of work to do to get there.
04:22If we did get there, we're certainly not going to sit here and think, OK, that's the job
04:26done, we want to crack on, we want to make sure first of all we're mathematically safe
04:29at some point and then try and kick on and have a good end of the season but at the moment
04:33we just have to not get too carried away with all that and look at the game at Wednesday first.
04:39Deservedly, you're getting a lot of praise yourself for the job you're doing consistently at Pompeii.
04:43Are you still happy here?
04:44Yeah, I mean, you're much happier after you win games.
04:48Yeah, I'm really happy.
04:49I mean, I challenge any head coach or manager to experience what everybody experienced yesterday
04:56at Flaten Park and not be sort of happy at the Football Club because it's such an amazing
05:00thing to be a part of and a real privilege and I've spoken about that a lot since I've
05:04joined the Football Club but days like yesterday, show it's just not lip service, it's such
05:09an amazing thing to be part of, an amazing place to play football, to watch football,
05:14to coach football and that's extremely pleasing.
05:18I think you tie everything in together with how the club's been and how much support I
05:24think I've had since I've come here, which is through the very good times last season
05:29and also 100% support through all of the tough times this year as well and I think
05:33that marries up to hopefully be a successful partnership.
05:36How shut are you, Asa, with all the motion yesterday?
05:39Yeah, you do feel pretty drained after games and sometimes you've got a couple of days
05:45to just relax and you don't have to get straight back on it.
05:49For example, we always watch the games back and sometimes I can leave it until the next
05:53day but we had to get the post-match done this morning, we had the lads in this morning
05:56again to make sure we were prepared for Plymouth, so post-match this morning we've put everything
05:59to bed with Leeds and we've got to move on pretty quickly to Plymouth.
06:02Obviously the lads put in a tremendous shift yesterday, the subs as well.
06:06You've got a game now Wednesday, is rotation on your mind at all?
06:10It's a consideration, yeah, it's definitely a consideration.
06:13The only thing I'd say is we had a free week going into the Leeds game so it is a quick
06:18turnaround from Leeds to Plymouth but they're both home games so we haven't had the travel
06:21in between, that's sometimes where we struggle with the travel.
06:26We also have the game on Saturday to bear in mind but we have two weeks off after that
06:30so there's been some games, you look through the games in January where we were really
06:33managing the squad and looking to rotate the squad.
06:36The West Bond game is a really good example but I think the West Bond game came off the
06:39back of three games in the previous nine days, something like that, it was the fourth game
06:43in ten days.
06:44We had a game again on the Tuesday or the Wednesday so we had to make sure that we tried
06:47to manage the squad.
06:48Bristol City was the same around Christmas time.
06:51I feel we're in a slightly different spot at the moment because we have the time before
06:56the Leeds game and the time after the Preston game so that doesn't mean to say that squad
07:00rotation isn't a possibility but I just think it's a different situation.
07:04And the fact that after Preston you've got the international break as well?
07:08Yeah, and again I think the most important thing for us is to look at the Plymouth game
07:12in isolation and go, we have to be fully focused on trying to win the game, this is the most
07:16important game for us now this season, an absolutely massive game for many, many reasons
07:21and we're focused on that and I think we'll deal with the Preston game after that but
07:26certainly the Plymouth game is the big game for us right now.
07:29Coen Bramwell came on yesterday, he impressed a lot of us actually, you've seen him in training
07:33more than we have.
07:34Yeah, I've seen Coen a huge amount over the years and I know that he's more than capable
07:38of putting in the display like he did yesterday.
07:41I thought that he was energetic on the front foot in the press, he got a couple of really
07:45good crosses in, being direct and athletically Coen's one of the best that you'll find at
07:49the level and it's just about making sure that when he comes on in those frantic games
07:54he gets himself involved like he did yesterday, I thought he was really good and had a really
07:57positive effect.
07:58How's he been since he's come to the club?
08:00He's been great, he's pretty much come on in all of the games that we've played, there's
08:04a couple that he might have missed but he's come on out of position in all of them as
08:07well which is a testament to Coen, the fact that we trust him there, he gets the press,
08:11he knows what we want to achieve and I think he's probably been unlucky because it's the
08:14first time the club's coincided with Conor Ogilvie and he's a really good run of form
08:17and I think Coen I still see as a left back, still competing for that spot but at the moment
08:22Conor's doing fantastically well there.
08:24He's signed his left back cover but he's not played a minute there yet has he?
08:27No not yet but mainly because of Conor's solid performances but I do think he's got the capability
08:33obviously to play a bit higher and he's played high on the left and when we've made that
08:37change it's to have that energy coming on, to have that athleticism, to have that maybe
08:41a bit more of defensive salinity as well so I think in most of the games we've brought
08:44him on we've been winning and he's just given us that salinity to go and see games out.
08:49Best game for Pomby so far do you think?
08:51Yeah I think so, I think he had a real effect against a really, really good side and against
08:56top championships slash Premier League level athletes at the back as well and Coen really
09:00showed what he could do just on the front foot, on the press and also on the board as
09:03well I thought he was excellent.
09:04In terms of injuries, how's Oshige?
09:07Yeah he's fine, he's fine, he took a knock to the top of his foot but he's iced it, he
09:12didn't train today but none of the lads trained today so none of the starting eleven trained
09:15today, just doing recovery and today the training group was made up of all of the subs and I
09:21think it should be fine, we'll reassess him tomorrow but I think he'll be okay.
09:24Where was Chris' safety?
09:25Chris picked up a bit of an injury in training last week so we're just being slightly cautious
09:33with Chris, he may be available for the weekend but if not he should be available for Blackburn.
09:37What's he done?
09:38He's just tweaked his groin slightly.
09:40Oh I see.
09:41Yeah, nothing major, just a tweak but with these we have to be careful.
09:45Because obviously you've got the long term players out for the season but you haven't
09:48got that many, apart from Williams I suppose is it, that have got knocked at the moment?
09:54Yeah Williams is one of the short term ones, I think, well hopefully what we're looking
09:58at is, I don't want to put the timescale on it but all of a sudden I think at the back
10:03end of the international break, if you look at someone like Shocks, he'll be I think six
10:07weeks into his recovery for a six to eight week injury, Rob Atkinson all of a sudden
10:13will be probably about four weeks by the back end of the international break so if we can
10:16get through that international break and get to the back end of it, some of those ones
10:19that felt really long term at the time like Shocks and Rob, when you say six to eight
10:23weeks at that point they feel really long term blows, if we get through a couple of
10:27those weeks straight away then maybe those are back, but Jordan's the one we should have
10:30back for Blackburn.
10:31There you say the clearing up, but you still haven't looked that far!
10:33Yeah I mean when we say that there's inevitably going to be something else but it's one of
10:39the pleasing things is that the squad at the moment has managed to step in and step up
10:46and we've managed to cope with that and we had a couple of, we had Tom Waddingham returning
10:50to the squad at the weekend as well which was timely because of the fact we had picked
10:54up a couple of injuries, so you know it's centre forward all of a sudden where Colby
10:58was sort of carrying all of the workload for a number of weeks, we've got Tom, we've got
11:02Mark, we've got Cassini, so we've got plenty of options.
11:06We are a bit thin elsewhere but with Alex coming into the building as well I think it
11:09bolsters us at centre half and we're looking a bit more balanced across the board.