'It would have been idiotic': Portsmouth boss lifts lid on why he subbed influential Blues man against Plymouth

The veteran once again revelled in a rare Blues start, producing a high-octane display on the right-hand side of their midfield.

There was disappointment when, as one of Pompey’s star performers on the night, he was brought off in the 74th minute for Sammy Silvera.

Subsequently, Michael Obafemi netted eight minutes later to earn Plymouth a 1-0 victory in a match Mousinho’s men did more than enough to win.

And afterwards the Blues’ head coach explained his reasoning for bringing off the influential Ritchie.

He told The News: ‘It was just the fact Matt has not played a huge amount of football over the past two years, so we’re protecting him.

‘We’ve also got another game this weekend. It was an injury risk starting him in the first place - and we decided to take that risk because of his level of performance at Hull. I thought he was superb as well.

‘He didn’t want to come off, it was just a case of we have all the information at our fingertips and it was tipping into any area where, if Matt had gone and torn a calf or hamstring, what on earth are we doing leaving him on for that period of time?

‘That would have been absolutely idiotic considering the fact we’ve also had the travel.

‘Matt is 35 and as fit as a flea, but he is 35. You take that into consideration and you take the effort into consideration.’

Having waited so long for his opportunity after returning to Fratton Park in the summer, it was another eye-catching display from Ritchie.

And Mousinho will be hoping the former Newcastle man can remain available for the visit of Preston on Saturday for potentially a third start in eight days.

He added: ‘There was something we saw at the weekend about overall physical performances over the entire season so far and Matt was 10th in terms of high-speed distance from Saturday.

‘We knew what he was putting into the game and we saw that again at Plymouth - and we didn't want to take the risk.’