'No disaster, no panic': Portsmouth boss calls for Fratton faithful calm as Peterborough and Bolton close in

John Mousinho has dismissed fears Pompey’s season is in danger of imploding.

And he has urged the Fratton faithful not to judge the current promotion-hunting side on previous post-Christmas collapses.

The Blues’ lead at League One’s summit has been cut to four points having failed to win their last two matches.

Instead festive fixtures against Fleetwood and Bristol Rovers have yielded a single point, prompting some to gloomily predict the campaign will follow the disappointments of 2018-19 and 2020-21.

And as Pompey prepare to face struggling Exeter tonight (7.45pm), their straight-talking head coach is refusing to ‘panic’.

Mousinho told The News: ‘I don’t think there’s any panic, I didn’t feel any panic on Boxing Day.

‘There are always going to be a few, I guess the minority of voices, that worry about what’s happening, but the message from me is to take the Bolton result as an example.

‘We beat them to put ourselves top of the table. At that stage, we hadn't achieved anything, we hadn’t won the league, we hadn’t even seen Bolton off.

‘Then we lost against Bristol Rovers, the complete flipside to that. Nothing has changed for us, there’s no disaster, there’s no panic.

‘It’s another game we haven’t won, obviously we want to do better, but it’s really important to look at victories and defeats and try to be objective.

‘We must make sure we take the positives and the negatives from Boxing Day and roll onto Exeter, correcting any of those negatives and amplifying all the positives.

‘I can understand the supporter reaction to the last two matches, that’s fine, being a football fan myself I completely get it. The natural inclination is to look back at history and previous years in this position.

‘As far as we are concerned, though, the historical context has nothing to do with us, there are hardly any players left from those eras. Everything has changed around the football club, it’s completely different.

‘Of course we understand that worry might be coming from people externally, but, as far as we’re concerned inside the group, we are making sure we stay level headed.

‘When we win games we know we haven't cracked it - and when we lose games it’s not a disaster either.’

Pompey tonight lock horns with an Exeter side fresh from a first league victory in 13 matches following a 1-0 success over Wycombe On Boxing Day.

And he’s seeking for a swift return to winning ways at the expense of the 20th-placed Grecians.

He added: ‘We looked at those two games and thought we could have taken six points. The bigger disappointment to me is Fleetwood, I didn’t feel we performed particularly well and got all we deserved.

‘Boxing Day wasn’t the case, I thought we performed well and deserved at least a point. Then, on balance having looked at everything after the game, I thought we deserved to win it.

‘Although we obviously need to do more to make sure we actually secure those points.’