‘I suppose…’: Portsmouth boss responds to Bristol City selection criticism as freshened side bury Swansea City

The Blues buried Swansea City with a New Year’s Day super show at Fratton Park, as they cruised to a 4-0 victory to lift themselves out of the bottom three.

Mousinho’s side produced a performance full of vigour as he made four changes after the Ashton Gate reverse, bringing in his front-line performers who all produced strong showings.

The head coach took flak for making changes last time out as his side take on a relentless period of fixtures.

Mousinho thought the outcome was evident to see in Pompey’s impressive performance, a they started 2025 in style.

He said: ‘I suppose so.

‘Once you do that you have to make sure you’re physically ready for the game today - and the lads were.

‘The side we picked at Bristol City we thought was going to be competitive going into the game - and unfortunately it wasn’t.

‘I said at the time and before the game I don’t think it was the changes which cost us, it was the performance. The whole 11 were below standard.

‘We picked a side the other day with the schedule in mind and we did need to rest players.

‘You could see even the lads who were fresh today were out on their feet by the end of the first half.

‘Langy was out on his feet and Murph the same. Colby is managing to get through these games in superb fashion.

‘So even for the lads who were fresh with the amount of output they have it’s going be tiring.’

Pompey produced excellent performances all over the park, but Paddy Lane’s afternoon was one to savour as he got his first Championship goal and was given a standing ovation when withdrawn in the second half.

Mousinho added: It’s Paddy’s first goal in the Championship.

‘He was brilliant last year in terms of his goalscoring output.

‘We’ve asked for more of Paddy in recent weeks. He did alright against Bristol City and received the ball well on his back foot without being a massive goal threat.

‘We’re asking for that performance more often than not from Paddy and he has to keep going to make the step up to the level.’