Portsmouth boss' reassurance for ex-Spurs keeper after answering SOS to face Plymouth

And he believes Josh Oluwayemi’s saves kept the Blues ‘in the game’ in their 3-1 defeat to League One’s leaders.

With in-form Matt Macey laid low by illness, their former Spurs keeper was handed a second Football League career outing.

Oluwayemi responded with a display which earned praise from the head coach, irrespective of the disappointing scoreline.

And he is adamant the 21-year-old can be proud of his outing against the Pilgrims.

He told The News: ‘If you look at the first goal, it comes through a couple of bodies and takes a slight deflection.

‘Josh makes a really good reaction save and, unfortunately, it bounces to their centre-forward. Josh was a bit unlucky.

‘In the second half, he made a couple of excellent saves and probably kept us in the game.

‘I was really pleased for him and he was a bit unlucky to concede three goals and be on the losing team. He has been great.

‘Josh had to take the tough news of Matt (Macey) coming in. He started against Bolton in the league and did really well in that game, barring the obvious error. Apart from that he did really well.

‘So he is probably a bit unlucky to find himself out of the side with Matt coming in and doing brilliantly well.

‘But that’s what we need, we need a squad, we need a squad that can come in and cover if there are injuries, suspensions and drops in form.

‘Part of my criticism of the side was we stitched Josh up on a couple of those back passes and you have got to be better with that.

‘There are a couple of technical bits we can work with on Josh and I have spoken to Joe Prodomo (goalkeeping coach) about what he can do when those back passes do come in and are bobbling up towards his shin.’

Saturday represented a second loss in three games for the Blues, both coming away from Fratton Park.

It leaves Pompey 11th in League One, 12 points off the play-offs – but Mousinho was pleased with the opening 45 minutes against the Pilgrims.

He added: ‘I thought the performance in the first half was excellent.

‘We actually came in at half-time and my question to the team was, what are the differences between you and Plymouth? You have gone toe-to-toe with a side second in the league at the time and we competed brilliantly well.

‘Just before the first goal Joe Morrell had a guilt-edged opportunity down at the other end and that’s the difference, we didn’t put them to the sword.

‘There was real positivity at half-time – unfortunately we probably lost the game in the 45th-65th minute where Plymouth were the better side.’