'I wouldn't change what I said': No regrets for Portsmouth boss as he delivers strong message for QPR, Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday clashes

And faced with three games over a gruelling seven days, Pompey’s head coach is adamant each and every one of them should also be treated as essential victories.

The Blues are second from bottom of the Championship, having failed to win any of their nine fixtures so far this season.

Yet the forthcoming seven days are pivotal towards inspiring that climb up the table, with fellow strugglers QPR, Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday on the fixture list.

And, for Mousinho, all represent must-win matches. Again.

He told The News: ‘It’s a funny one, I wouldn’t change what I said prior to the Oxford game in terms of it being a must win.

‘We haven’t won the game, but are still in a position where that can change in the blink of an eye. It’s not like it’s the end of the world that we didn’t beat Oxford, it felt like it at the time but now, once the dust has settled, we did okay.

‘We have nine points to play for this week. If we play like we can play and if we take as many points as we possibly can from those three games, we’ll be in a decent position.

‘The best mentality or the best way to approach any game is to know they are all must-wins. The second you go into the game and you don’t have that attitude and mentality where it's a must-win, you really drop off the pace.

‘We’ll be treating QPR as a must-win, Cardiff as a must-win, Sheffield Wednesday as a must-win as well. I think it’s the best way to go about it.’

On Saturday, Pompey head to a QPR side one place and two points ahead of them, followed by a trip to bottom club Cardiff on Tuesday evening.

They then host Sheffield Wednesday on October 25, a club which has Jamal Lowe on their books and are presently 15th.

Mousinho added: ‘The most important thing is to focus on the game we’ve got in front of us, which is QPR on Saturday. Then deal with Cardiff on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

‘QPR is the only thing we need to think about at the moment and presents us with a really good opportunity to go and play the first game back after the international break.

‘We must isolate them, attacking the first game and seeing where we are off the back of that. I don’t think it’s worth being too clever at this stage about what we do managing minutes and managing players.

‘You can probably buy yourself that privilege if you are in a different league position - and we probably had that privilege at times last year to be able to chop and change a bit more.

‘But, at the minute, we need full focus on QPR and then take stock of us physically and mentally and go from there for Cardiff.’