‘Easy to be long-ball team’: Portsmouth boss’ message to faithful demanding attacking urgency

And the Blues boss acknowledged his side have to find the right balance between ‘meaningful and meaningless possession’, as he bids to produce an attractive brand of football.

The target is clear for Mousinho ahead of his first full campaign at Fratton Park, after succeeding Danny Cowley in January.

The 37-year-old wants to deliver success on a foundation of attractive football moving forward next term.

It’s not always gone to plan so far, with supporters registering their displeasure on occasions at efforts at progressive build-up play. Mousinho accepted his brand of football is a work in progress, but is keen to avoid going a route one approach.

He said: ‘It’s really important and we do have to get the balance right between meaningful and meaningless possession - we’re aware of that.

‘One of the frustrating things about the Oxford game was we felt we kept the ball really well in spells, but when we did go forward and break the lines we didn’t take advantage and came back too much.

‘Watching the game back, we moved the ball really well for eight, nine 10 passes and got into good positions where we could have gone forward - then didn’t.

‘So, yes , we would like to be positive but sometimes you have to be patient around the back or be patient and not progress in terms of field position.

‘When you do get the opportunities we have to start breaking lines and get more crosses and shots off. That’s one thing we didn’t do particularly well against Oxford, we get that.

‘There are going to be times, particularly at Fratton when teams sit in and make things difficult for us. We have to deal with that as an entire club to do well.

‘What we want to do is play exciting, attacking front-footed football definitely, but we don’t want to be direct and predictable.

‘It would be very easy for us to say we’re going to put two centre-forwards on and we’re going very direct and long. That would be a very different style of play and there wouldn’t be any frustration in terms of playing out from the back.

‘I hope the fans want a mix and we want to try to get to that, but we’re still really early in what we’re trying to do.’

Despite some negative reaction to Pompey’s style of play, Mousinho was gladdened by what unfolded at Derby on his team’s final away trip of the season.

The Blues’ played some flowing football for decent periods of the game against the play-off chasers, with their approach pleasing the 3,120 travelling fans.

That backing is important to the Pompey boss, especially when it comes to sides arriving at Fratton Park with a lack of ambition.

Mousinho added: ‘That’s really the message from me - we’re really early in terms of what we’re trying to progress to.

‘We can see where it’s going and there’s been a few times like against Accrington where we would pop it out and break the press - then we were at them.

‘We get it but the more patience the better, because the more support we have the better we’ll be. I just think that’s really evident, if Derby didn’t show that then nothing will.

‘I get the frustrations of the Oxford and Accrington games, but it was gone by the time we went do Derby and it just made a huge difference to have that support for 90 minutes in difficult circumstances.

‘We need that both home and away, it will a huge difference because Fratton can be a horrible place to play for away players when the crowd are at them and backing their team.

‘We take full responsibility for making that happen, but any help is greatly appreciated.’