Portsmouth boss explains key team selection call made ahead of Bristol Rovers defeat

John Mousinho has explained his decision to start Gavin Whyte ahead of Paddy Lane for today’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Bristol Rovers.

The switch was the only alteration made to the Blues starting line-up following Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Fleetwood at Fratton Park.

It prompted many members of the Fratton faithful to question the decision pre-match given Whyte’s struggles in a Pompey shirt following his free transfer arrival from Cardiff. The Ulsterman had scored just one goal and recorded two assists in the 22 games he'd featured in before today's outing.

Those supporters will have seen little to convince them that Mousinho was right to call upon the Northern Ireland international from the start at the Memorial Stadium, especially after the winger’s withdrawal on 73 minutes. But Mousinho defended the call, claiming Whyte’s form in recent games and a desire to introduce fresh legs into the team warranted the change.

The Blues boss told BBC Solent: ‘It was just about freshening it up, really, and trying to get fresh legs on the pitch.

‘Gavin has been very, very sharp when he’s come on. He was very sharp against Bolton when he came on, he obviously scored the goal in the EFL Trophy (against AFC Wimbledon) and I think among the substitutes (against Fleetwood), he was the one who created the most at the weekend. So I wanted to freshen it up and see what we could get out of that.’

Whyte’s substitution was one of two made by Mousinho after Antony Evans handed the hosts a 1-0 lead on 66 minutes. He and Jack Sparkes made way for Lane and Kusini Yengi as Pompey changed to a 3-4-3 formation - and it had the desired effect as the former scored within minutes of coming on to get the visitors back on level terms.

The Blues looked more than capable of going on to win the game from that moment, but were hit on the counte- attack deep into stoppage-time when Luke Thomas popped up to score at the back post.

It resulted in a second league defeat of the season for the league leaders. On Rovers’ last-gasp winner, Mousinho added: ‘When we did get the equaliser, I thought we looked the more likely team to score. We had chance after chance in their box and we just couldn’t quite put the ball in the back of their net.

‘There were some disappointing aspects of the performance after half-time which we obviously have to address but apart from that there’s not huge amounts to fault there, just probably game management towards the end.

‘I thought we were fine in the first half. We controlled the game and it’s always tough to come away to places like this on Boxing Day and getting into the game.

‘So we controlled them pretty well without really creating a lot and I thought that was more to the lack of quality we had in the final third rather than we didn’t get the ball into the final third.

‘The second half we couldn’t really get a foothold in the game, we made a couple of rash decisions that I thought led to them getting the upper hand and getting the crowd on side, so it felt like we just wanted to get the attacking players on the pitch and we obviously ended up do that, getting the three centre-forwards on with Paddy and Abu (Kamara) either side (of Colby Bishop).

‘Obviously it was a shape change but I don’t necessarily think it was the shape change (that allowed Rovers to go on and win it). We got into the game with the attacking players going forward, doing the right things and got back into the game really deservedly and when we equalised I thought we were the more likely side to score again.’