'Massive apologies': Stunned Portsmouth boss' honest message to the Fratton faithful after Stoke debacle

The Blues slumped to a 6-1 defeat, which included five goals during a calamitous 11-minute spell as a rampant Tom Cannon netted four times.

Mousinho labelled it the worst performance of his 20 months at the club, while it deepens growing fears among some supporters the Blues are plummeting back to League One.

Although he believes it’s too early to say whether Pompey are already embroiled in a relegation battle.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘The fans were amazing, they didn’t deserve that, we don’t deserve what they gave us tonight. Massive apologies to everyone that spent their money to come up to Stoke on a Wednesday night.

‘It’s unacceptable and we all know deep down that we’re very, very lucky to have that backing.

‘Myself and the coaching staff are taking full responsibility for anything we need to take, but the players have to take a long, hard look at themselves as well. It’s their careers that these sort of performances affect.

‘I didn’t see this coming, it was a big surprise to me because we had been so good in the last three games. We were excellent at the weekend against promotion contenders and had a real chance to come and get something.

‘It was the nature of the way we went under. We didn’t run, I didn’t think we competed, we lost tackles, we lost headers, we lost second balls. The players have to do a lot better than they did.

‘I’ve learnt loads, I’ve learnt loads about individuals. We’ve learnt that certain moments, when the going gets tough, I thought we saw players go under. In general, if you look at the way we started the game, we have too many players making the wrong decision.

‘I’m not entirely sure where that comes from. You come to Stoke and decide we’re going to allow them to build pressure in the first 10 minutes and allow them to get their heads up and allow them to score a goal. It's beyond me.

‘It is probably too early to say whether we’re in a relegation battle, but we’re not exactly covering ourselves in glory in terms of picking up points.’

Mousinho has transformed Pompey since arriving as head coach in January 2023, leading them to the League One title last season.

But he is adamant Stoke represents the most abject display during his time at the club.

He added: ‘I haven’t seen that level of performance since I’ve been here, I haven’t seen the boys go under. It was our worst performance under me by a long way.

‘After the first 10 minutes, where we started off abysmally and did some really ridiculous things, we dug ourselves out of a hole by all of a sudden deciding we were going to be a half-decent side at 1-0 down.

‘Then going into half-time it was 1-1, we actually created a bit of pressure, a couple of set-pieces, the game was relatively even for that second block of the first half and shot ourselves in the foot at the back end of the first half, two abysmal goals to concede.’