'As a player I hated coming to Fratton Park': Why ex-Oxford United and Preston defender is now revelling in Portsmouth life at his feared bogey ground

Now Pompey’s head coach finds himself embracing such home comforts as he strives to utilise that famous intimidating atmosphere to drive his side to success.

In eight playing visits to Fratton Park, spread between Oxford United, Preston and Burton, the 36-year-old failed to taste victory.

Mousinho ranks it alongside Port Vale as the grounds where struggled for positive results during a career spent outside the Premier League.

Ironically, he celebrated victory on his Fratton debut as head coach, marking the occasion with a 2-0 win over Exeter.

And he finds himself back on the south coast on Saturday as sixth-placed Barnsley visit.

Mousinho told The News: ‘I never won at Fratton Park as a player, it’s a hard place to come and my bogey ground along with Port Vale.

‘You know what it is, it’s not welcoming to away players. You go to some lovely new stadiums, nice place, big changing rooms, big open corridors but it’s just not intimidating.

‘At Fratton Park you have fans close to the pitch. If you go in from the pitch, you come down and then turn left up the tight stairs to the dressing room. It’s the feel of the place.

‘You can’t get that intimidating atmosphere at MK Dons or Doncaster. Fratton Park’s also an old stadium, you feel a bit of history there

‘You love playing here, it’s a good ground, but I also hated it, particularly going into the Fratton End.

‘On the flip side, we would always talk about frustrating the fans. After 60 minutes and it’s 0-0, it doesn’t matter who Pompey are playing against, the fans are going to start worrying about certain things.

‘The best time I played at Fratton Park as the opposition was with Oxford when there were no supporters in the July 2020 play-off semi-finals.

‘If fans were there it would be a really tough one, thankfully there were none, it was behind closed doors during Covid, and that helped us.

‘There was definitely a stonewall penalty turned down at the Fratton End in the second half. Ronan Curtis then put them 1-0 up and, with fans, the whole atmosphere changes - not that day.

‘Now the boot is on the other foot, I’m head coach here and have that advantage.’

During eight visits to Fratton Park as a player, Mousinho featured in five of them and was an unused substitute three times.

And one particular Oxford match stands out – when he featured against Kenny Jackett’s Blues in November 2019.

He added: ‘The first half I got an absolute torrent from John Marquis, we also had a couple of injuries and were putting people out of position, but it was goalless at half-time.

‘In the second half we somehow hung in there, it was attack after attack at the Fratton End and Pompey were 1-0 up.

‘Then we nicked it, Matty Taylor headed in James Henry’s cross in stoppage time to get a 1-1 draw.

‘We got away with it and were rubbing our hands with glee!’