‘Got exactly what we deserved’: Furious Pompey boss fumes after ‘unacceptable’ Fleetwood draw

John Mousinho ripped into his players for falling way short of acceptable standards in the 1-1 draw with struggling Fleetwood.

The Blues performed poorly in the second half at Fratton Park, after gaining control against the Cod Army. That let Lee Johnson’s side back into the game, as the team who’d lost their past six games without scoring earned a deserved point.

Mousinho pulled no punches about the deficiencies in Pompey’s display as he quietly seethed after the game.

He said: ‘It wasn’t good enough. I can put my finger on why it was a frustrating watch - I can’t put my finger on why we didn’t perform.

‘It was a frustrating watch because we put ourselves in a good position without playing well.

‘I think we just did enough to deserve the lead without creating too much. We put the penalty away and were in a good position going into the second half - but came out and were dreadful for 20 minutes. We got exactly what we deserved with the equaliser.

‘We then came alive again for the last 25 minutes but it wasn’t to be and it wasn’t enough. We can’t afford to put ourselves in those positions - we could have even lost the game.

‘It wasn’t good enough and I’m really struggling to figure out the reasons why. It was a frustrating watch. I don’t think I’m unreasonable to demand a lot more than what I saw today.’

Mousinho didn’t look to point the finger for the manner in which the visitors levelled through Josh Earl from a 63rd-minute corner. He was furious, however, for the manner in which an initial corner was conceded from passive defending.

Mousinho added: ‘I’m more disappointed that we conceded the set-piece in the first place. If you were to see how back-footed we were for the first corner and just backed off and backed off - that was unacceptable.’