'Middlesbrough deserved to win': Honest Portsmouth boss takes the positives despite more late agony

Tommy Conway’s 90th-minute penalty denied the Blues a 2-1 victory as the visitors’ strong rear-guard action finally shattered under immense pressure.

Christian Saydee’s first-half double ensured Pompey had led for 65 minutes, with a relentless Boro finally breaking the door down at the death for a spare of the spoils at 2-2. 

But Mousinho was delighted with a point rather than frustrated at surrendering victory so late in the encounter.

He told The News: ‘As it got closer to the 90 minutes we thought we might be able to hold on in there, but ultimately we conceded a few too many opportunities and one of them ended up as a penalty.

‘On balance, Middlesbrough deserved to win the game, so to come away with a point is a really positive result.

‘They didn’t punish us for the chances they created. It’s a really interesting one because I think if the game does go to 2-2 a bit early in the second half, then we’d have changed our mentality and played a bit better than we did.

‘We sat in, sat in and sat in and got away with a few little bits here and there. Will (Norris) dug us out of a couple of holes, there were some really good last-ditch defending but I do think the mentality would have changed if we had conceded the second.

‘Last ditch we defended really well, there are some better things we can do further up the pitch, we invited a bit too much pressure, we were a bit too deep and allowed Middlesbrough to play a bit too centrally at times.

‘There is plenty to improve upon. Any time we concede a goal or a chance from really good play, I have no issue with it, and there was plenty of good play from Middlesbrough today, but there were certain moments we could have just been better.’

The Blues were without Conor Shaughnessy (ill) and Sammy Silvera (ineligible against his parent club).

In the reshuffle, Jordan Williams partnered Ryley Towler in the centre of defence, with Zak Swanson starting at right-back.

Mousinho added: ‘We were massively patched up. If you look at where we probably would have liked to have been at the start of the season, then losing Conor Shaughnessy late on was a real blow.

‘Jordan (Williams) came in at centre-half and did magnificently well, not to mention Zak Swanson on his first Championship start of the season, who was really good at right-back.

‘Overall, when you take all of those things into account, we can be really pleased.’