Every word Pompey boss John Mousinho said on Stevenage, Louis Thompson and team news

John, Stevenage away this weekend against Steve Evans… They’ve had a good start to the season haven’t they?

‘They’ve had a really good start. It’s not really surprising considering the end they had last year and the momentum they built at the end of last season.

‘They were deserved winners of promotion from League Two and they’ve hit the ground running this year. Steve Evans has got really good organised sides at this level, he knows exactly what he is doing.

‘He’s had a side promoted out of this league as well. He comes with bags of experience and a very

well-organised side that scored quite a few goals as well.

‘Fair play to them, they’re doing really well and it’s going to be a tough test for us.’

I suppose you’ve come across him a few times in your career?

Plenty. A couple of times as player and as a player-coach a few times over the past few times with his Gillingham sides in particular.

I know players who have played under him as well and I’ve seen plenty of his sides over the years. He had a really successful Crawley side coming through the leagues and that Rotherham team he had coming through the divisions who were highly successful, and he’s doing it again with Stevenage.

A lot of respect for the whole coaching staff there, and one I know pretty well across the board but certainly coaches that have done very well.

What’s he like?

He’s great. Steve has got a massive personality in the game and is animated on the sidelines. Any time you do speak to him away from the buzz of the game, he’s a great guy and a great character. He’s really intelligent and an excellent coach. You don’t have the career that he’s had without being as good as he is and after the game I’m very much looking forward to sitting down and having a chat with him.

And Louis Thompson as well…

Louis has really come back to the fold with Stevenage and we know he’s capable of good things at this level. He played a good part in my last 23 games last season and played plenty of times and minutes and did well.

He was one of those that was unlucky not to force his way into the side last season. We were really to shake hands at the back end of last year and send him on his way to pastures new where we think he’s gonna play 46 league games if possible.

I’m pleased for Louis, not too pleased for him because we don’t want him to perform too well on the weekend but apart from that, we wish him all the best.

Was it a difficult decision not to offer him a new deal?

It was. Selfishly, part of us would have liked to keep Louis around. Ultimately, though, the question to him was do you want to play 30-50 games next year?

‘The answer was “Yes” – and we didn’t want to hold him back. The answer from us was it’s not going to be here, even though we’d love to have you around as a really good character and a squad player.

The best thing for him and for the football club as for him to do what he’s done this year and he’s done it really well.

People talk about how influential he was off the pitch…

He was a really good character and great to have around the dressing room and one of those senior leaders. He’s played for a long long time now and he’s seen most things.

It was always good to lean on, and kept his attitude brilliant all the way through. Even when he wasn’t playing games and was probably unlucky not to be playing games he was really good to have around the place.

Team news… What’s the situation?

We’ve got a clean bill of health apart from all the lads we know about long term. So Paddy’s come back, and he was absolutely fine after the game on Tuesday.

We’ve got Tom Lowery who has surgery and the surgery has gone well as we spoke about last week.

He’s been back in the building for the first time today after spending the week at home. We’re still looking at that 12-week period for Tom.

Kasini’s a week into his eight-week rehab. He’s still in the boot and making sure we’re protecting the ankle ligament. It’s good signs from him.

Finally the one we haven’t updated on yet is Josh Dockerill who had successful ACL injury. Unfortunately for him, it’s not going to cut down the time for him he has to spend on the physio bed but we’re still looking at seven to nine months for him.