John Mousinho sounds Portsmouth battle cry over 'must win' Oxford United clash

The Blues head coach is under no illusion of the importance of Saturday’s Fratton Park encounter between the two promoted sides.

Pompey are second from bottom of the Championship having failed to win any of their opening eight matches, while suffered a 6-1 humiliation at Stoke on Wednesday night.

Victory is regarded as essential in kickstarting a season threatening to become an ongoing relegation battle just months after returning to the level following a 12-year absence.

And Mousinho is adamant nothing less than a win is needed against the club he used to captain in the 12.30pm kick-off.

He told The News: ‘Yes, this is a must-win game.

‘We go into every game and try to win it, but I don’t think there’s any point in sugar-coating it and me trying to play it down.

‘If we don’t win the game on Saturday, the season isn’t over and we have plenty to play for. But my attitude is it’s a must-win, we have to win the match at the weekend.’

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The last time Pompey’s players were questioned so vigorously was following a 3-0 home defeat to Leyton Orient in January 2024.

That loss capped a dreadful festive period, which also included defeats at Bristol Rovers and Cheltenham as the long-time League One leaders wobbled.

However, Mousinho’s men responded to their Orient set-back by establishing an unbeaten run which took them to the title and a Championship return.

He added: ‘There was a really good response after Leyton Orient. We went 17 matches unbeaten after that, that’s great, a really good reaction from everybody involved at that point.

‘The interesting thing is we’re a different squad now, hopefully better, in terms of our reaction and in terms of our ability to react to that. We’re facing different opposition at a different level.

‘It would be lovely if we can channel some of that again, but everything has changed a lot since then, so we’re going to have to find our own way to deal with this and our own way to make sure we bounce back and go on a really positive run.’