Portsmouth boss explains shock selection of forgotten Manchester United loanee after totalling 14 minutes in previous 10 fixtures

And the Blues boss hailed Di’Shon Bernard’s surprise first-team comeback as ‘brilliant’ following a 1-1 draw at MK Dons.

The last time the Manchester United loanee was named in a starting line-up was the 3-1 defeat at Plymouth on February 11.

While he has totalled just 14 minutes of match action from the bench since that Home Park outing.

However, the 22-year-old was named in place of Clark Robertson in the centre of defence for the Good Friday trip to MK Dons.

And he produced a key display as Pompey’s 10-men left with a hard-fought point.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Di’Shon has trained really well this week, which was a factor which came into it and we were tactically looking at how MK play.

‘In order to press them high up the pitch, we were most likely to have to leave him with Jonathan Leko and that’s his strength. Leko has been an excellent performer since he joined MK Dons, a real threat.

‘Everyone saw the performance in the first half, Di’Shon was brilliant. There was maybe one time that he didn’t quite go in and Leko managed to get the other side of him, but we are asking our centre-halves to do that.

‘From coming in after not having started a game since Plymouth, he did well, had no problem physically, an excellent performance and a real positive out there.

‘The only evidence you need on how hard he has been working was out there on Friday. You cannot perform like that unless you’ve been at it, kept your head down and trained hard.

‘If you’re not a really good pro and haven’t been good around the place, you get found out when you come in for one game.

‘That tells you everything you need to know about Di’Shon and I am really, really pleased with him because he put in a brilliant shift.’

Having replaced Robertson, the Scot ended up being introduced at half-time anyway after the Blues had been reduced to 10-men following Joe Morrell’s dismissal.

Along with man-of-the-match Sean Raggett, it was an excellent rearguard action from what became a back five.

Mousinho added: ‘Di’Shon came into the side at first and did really well, particularly in the Barnsley game and then again out of position at Plymouth.

‘It’s been a tough one, I’m leaving players out the side, leaving players out the squad, and I don’t really have anything to say to them other than keep your head, train hard, you’re good but there are also good players playing ahead of you and we’re just picking sides to win games at the moment.

‘I had a conversation with Clark Robertson on Thursday, the club captain who played really well last week (Forest Green) and kept a clean sheet with a win at home.

‘But you find yourself out of the side, virtue of the fact we were trying to win the game a different way.’