Portsmouth boss makes rueful admission on 'sides like Sheffield Wednesday'
Portmsouth boss John Mousinho spoke ruefully on his side’s management of the second half as they squandered a lead to suffer defeat against Sheffield Wednesday.
The Pompey manager, who achieved promotion from League One in his first full season in management last time out, is finding life more difficult this time out with his side sat rock bottom of the Championship. A Connor Ogilvie bundle gave his side the lead at Fratton Park before second half goals from Josh Windass and Michael Smith - the latter a worldy from distance - turned things around for the triumphant Owls.
And it is in the build-up to that Smith thunderstrike that Mousinho narrowed-in on the issues Portsmouth are facing this season. The 38-year-old boss has watched on as his side have caused issues for themselves and against teams of Championship quality such as Wednesday, he said, it’s a recipe for defeat.
“The most disappointing thing for me about the second goal is not the goal itself, it was about how much we had them pinned in the corner and we just switched off,” he said. “We let them off for half a second and sides like Sheffield Wednesday are going to punish you, that’s the theme of the season so far. We pressed well until we decided not to and those are the really small moments that decide the game because other than that I don’t think there was too much in the game.”
Mousinho had promised a response from midweek defeat at Cardiff that left him furious at his players’ approach. Pompey shared some bright moments with the Owls in the first half but fell away as the quality of Wednesday’s bench shone through. Despite that, the Pompey manager believes his side deserved a point from the game - at the very least.
“We need to win games and be better in the small moments,” he said. “You come away from Cardiff where we were beaten, we were poor, the performance wasn’t good enough. But I think we did enough tonight to at least draw the game, we gave ourselves a properly good base anyway to go and win the game. We have to be a lot better in those small moments because if you don’t, you get punished.”