'Integrity': Portsmouth boss' classy promise to relegation-threatened Hull, Luton, Derby & Co

While the Blues have already secured survival, Saturday visitors Hull are among five clubs still under threat of relegation.

The Tigers occupy the final spot in the drop zone and are positioned a point short of safety, with Luton, Preston, Derby and Stoke also in the scrap to avoid dropping into League One.

In contrast, little riding is on the last game of an exhausting season for the Blues, raising the danger of Mousinho’s players potentially going through the motions considering the circumstances.

However, Pompey’s head coach is adamant they will respect the integrity of the Championship and strive to end their own campaign with a victory.

Mousinho told The News: ‘We know it’s a really important game for Hull and all the sides down at the bottom.

‘We need to try to maintain the integrity of the league and finish the season with a win, that’s the most important thing for us. We’ve gone four unbeaten, our form is good, and we will attack the game.

‘Whatever side we go with, it will be very, very strong from our perspective. We made a couple of changes against Sheffield Wednesday and I felt they were for really, really good reasons.

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‘We’re not going to hand out anything for the sake of it, there'll be no charity cases, we certainly want everybody to be competitive and make sure we pick our best side to win the game - which I think is really important.

‘If we were in the same situation, we’d want other clubs to maintain that competitiveness and integrity. To be honest, I expect every single professional footballer to want to win, not just every football game they play, but everything they do.

‘That is the nature of professional athletes. If you put on a tiddly winks or a darts match, they want to win that as well. I expect us to be exactly the same on Saturday.

‘You saw how dedicated our lads were at Sheffield Wednesday last weekend. If you rewind this time last year when we went up to Lincoln - a really important game for them and the other sides around - and we made changes and still put in a really good performance.’

‘The stress has been taken away’

A defeat for Hull would ensure they join Plymouth and Cardiff in League One, while even a point may not be enough, depending on other results.

Mousinho handed a debut to goalkeeper Ben Killip and a second start for Harvey Blair in last weekend’s trip Sheffield Wednesday and, despite making five changes overall, they put in a competitive display to draw 1-1.

And, having booked their own survival with two matches to spare, Mourinho believes they can now play Hull with added freedom - and pose greater danger.

He added: ‘Mentally the stress of needing the result has been taken away and I think that’s going to be a positive.

‘Some of the nerves we’ve seen against Derby at home, it was probably a really nervy game in the second half against Watford. There have been times in the past 5-6 matches where we’ve looked a bit of a nervous side going into the second half of games, Blackburn was another when we needed the fans to get us through after going 1-0 up.

‘Hopefully the weight has now been lifted off everybody’s shoulders and we can perform with a bit more freedom. Ultimately, we’re going to try to win the game.’

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