John Mousinho hits back over Portsmouth penalty controversy after Burton complaints

John Mousinho reflected on refereeing decisions ‘evening themselves out’ after the Blues survived late controversy against Burton.

The struggling visitors believed they had strong shouts for a penalty in the dying minutes after Zak Swanson’s challenge on fellow substitute Bobby Kamwa.

At the time Pompey were winning 2-1, although rocking, yet thankfully referee Adam Herczeg refused to point to the spot - much to the anger of the Brewers.

Mousinho remains unsure whether it was a spot kick, nonetheless is adamant Abu Kamara and Myles Peart-Harris themselves were both denied penalties - while Kusini Yengi converted the one Pompey did receive.

He told The News: ‘I don’t know if it was one, I was nervous at the time he was going to give a penalty.

‘I suppose these things even themselves out, it was a stonewall penalty on Abu in the first half, then, when Myles was through in the second half, he got pulled back and then clipped - and it was John Brayford who’s already on a yellow.

‘Overall, I don’t think anyone can have any complaints about the way things have evened themselves out with the refereeing.

‘No-one complained at our penalty, it was a solid penalty, the one I was upset about was the fact that Steve Seddon slipped and hauled Abu down, I don't know what it wasn’t given.

‘I suppose maybe we got away with one with Zak, but we have to move on and take that one and make sure we don’t leave ourselves exposed to that.

‘I couldn’t see where I was going to be able to say it was a dive or wasn’t a dive. You give the referee the opportunity to make that decision because we didn’t do what we should have done previously in the game, which is putting the game to bed.’

Yengi netted twice on his first-team recall, having been selected in place of Colby Bishop.

Yet having been firmly in control for 80 minutes, Brayford’s consolation got the nerves going, much to Mousinho’s disappointment.

He added: ‘It’s important not to let the last 10 minutes mar what was a really good performance for 75-80 minutes. The boys were excellent, moved the ball really well, and created a lot of chances.

‘My two criticisms are we didn’t put the ball into the back of the net more, we had some really guilt-edged chances which we missed.

‘The other was we didn’t see the game out particularly well and made a couple of strange decisions, but I suppose it’s the pressure of having the lead and coming up against a good side who changed their shape and personnel.

‘That’s a lesson to the boys and that’s what I spoke about in there. You can completely control and dominate a game for 80 minutes, but unless you put the ball into the back of the net a couple more times, which we should have done, then you’re going to leave yourself open.’