'His best performance in a Portsmouth shirt': John Mousinho's delight at pivotal display behind QPR triumph

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John Mousinho hailed Tom McIntyre’s best performance in a Pompey shirt.

And he’s convinced there is still plenty more to come from the central defender now his infuriating injury issues appear to be in the past.

Saturday’s trip to Loftus Road represented only the seventh appearance of the 25-year-old’s Blues career, despite arriving from Reading in January.

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A broken foot and then a pre-season hamstring injury ruled him out of competitive football for eight months until his September comeback.

Tom McIntyre clears during an impressive performance in Pompey's 2-1 victory at QPR. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImagesTom McIntyre clears during an impressive performance in Pompey's 2-1 victory at QPR. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages
Tom McIntyre clears during an impressive performance in Pompey's 2-1 victory at QPR. Picture: Jason Brown/ProSportsImages | Jason Brown/ProSportsImages

During the ongoing absence of Connor Shaughnessy, he has now started six successive Championship matches.

Mousinho told The News: ‘There were a couple of bits I wanted more from Tom in the first half. where I thought he allowed Michael Frey to win a couple of headers by not competing. He wasn’t quite tight enough, but through the second half I thought he was excellent.

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‘It was quite possibly his best performance in a Pompey shirt and there’s still loads more we want from Tom.

‘If you look at the run he made in the first half, he has all the quality in the world, he just needs just to have a bit more quality at the back end of it.

‘There was another run in the second half too. Tom has got that, he must make sure he keeps defending with a huge amount of quality as well.

‘It has been a difficult re-introduction for him. Not in terms of his performances, but the fact we’ve asked him to go again and again and again because of the lack of other options at centre-back.

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‘Tom’s not the biggest, but I think he’s aggressive and I just wanted that aggression in the first half. I didn’t want him to let Frey have any more free headers - and I felt he tightened that up for the rest of the game.’

And they stood firm after the visitors fell behind to Kader Dembele’s eighth-minute opener following Nicolas Schmid’s underhit headed clearance.

Mousinho added: ‘At the moment, it feels like a top performance from a lot of the boys.

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‘I was really, really pleased with the back three in terms of the physical threat and the fact QPR put centre-forwards onto the pitch. They chucked everything at our back three.

‘Connor Ogilvie, Tom and Regan Poole aren’t the biggest, but they didn’t half compete.’

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