What John Mousinho said Pompey’s defence immediately after Wimbledon defeat in frank verdict
Pompey’s nine changes proved counterproductive as the defence uncharacteristically shipped five goals to AFC Wimbledon. Watch more of our videos on Shots! and live on Freeview channel 276
John Mousinho believes it isn’t time to overreact, and that should Pompey[2] should take their medicine after their raft of changes backfired against them versus AFC Wimbledon. The League One[3] leaders suffered a 5-2 defeat at Fratton Park[4] to League Two[5] opposition, who themselves made several changes.
Nine changes were made on Tuesday night, with only Joe Rafferty and Kusini Yengi survivingving from the side that won against Shrewsbury Town at the weekend. Several players were afforded rests on the night, and the EFL Trophy tie acted as a chance to stake their claim for a place in the league team, however most struggled to take their opportunity. “I still think we’ve got a strong squad, and that players can come in and compete in positions,” said Mousinho.
“For whatever reason tonight, it didn’t work out. It’s not going to be anything too drastic in terms of a reaction, we’ve just got to take our medicine tonight, and we were beat by a side that were very well organised, played well and put five goals past us. We’ve got to take it on the chin and move on.”
In the league, Pompey boast the best defence in the division with just 16 goals conceded in 21 games, however on Tuesday they conceded more than a quarter of that.
A reshuffled backline that hadn’t played alongside each other may have been at the cause of that. Denver Hume[6] came in from the cold, and lined up alongside a centre-back partnership of Joe Rafferty and Ryley Towler, and Zak Swanson being on the opposite flank. It was decided not to risk Connor Shaughnessy given the lack of options following Regan Poole’s injury.
The defence that finished the game consisted of Harry Jewitt-White, Ryley Towler and Denver Hume, all of which had played a combined total of 596 minutes before Tuesday night. Towler had played the most this season, however he and Hume hadn’t played for Pompey since the win against Leyton Orient[7] in mid-November. Mousinho added: “One of the selection headaches we had coming in to the game was what we were going to do at centre-half.
We moved Raffs to right-sided centre-half in the first-half and that was one in an ideal world we would have liked not to do that but with Regan’s injury at the moment, we don’t have that luxury. “We understand that if you have four centre-half’s that’s a fortunate position to be in and we’re not, we have three. We didn’t want to risk Connor Shaughnessy, I thought that would be completely pointless considering the position we’ve got ourselves in.”
“Towards the end, we had a makeshift back-three of Denver, Ryley and Harry. It is what we ended the game with and that’s absolutely fine, we’ve got to live with that and we’ve got to deal with it. I think if we want to make those changes we’ve got to take on board that is sometimes going to happen.
Joe Rafferty, predominantly a right-back, was moved into the centre of defence in a role he hadn’t played this season, and was paired up alongside Ryley Towler. The 30-year-old drew credit from his manager for his display in a somewhat less than familiar position, and finished the game being substituted for Colby Bishop in an attack-minded substitution when chasing the game. “I thought he was absolutely fine to be honest, Joe was one of our better performers,” Mousinho admitted.
“I was really happy with him tonight, I asked him to do that shift, I thought he did it and got on with it.
He didn’t complain at all, and I thought he got on well.”
References
- ^ Visit Shots! now (www.shotstv.com)
- ^ Pompey (www.portsmouth.co.uk)
- ^ League One (www.portsmouth.co.uk)
- ^ Fratton Park (www.portsmouth.co.uk)
- ^ League Two (www.portsmouth.co.uk)
- ^ Denver Hume (www.portsmouth.co.uk)
- ^ Leyton Orient (www.portsmouth.co.uk)