Portsmouth boss fumes over self-inflicted Cheltenham defeat as 'mad' minutes extend worrying spell

John Mousinho is adamant careless Pompey were responsible for their own downfall after a promotion set-back at struggling Cheltenham.

The Blues camp were unhappy with referee Simon Mather’s failure to award three penalties, for ruling out a Paddy Lane first-half goal after not playing advantage, and booking both Abu Kamara and Anthony Scully for diving.

Nonetheless, Liam Sercombe netted twice in three ‘mad’ minutes to inflict a 2-1 defeat which extends a worrying sequence of results of late.

Poor defending was responsible for both goals, with the second particularly avoidable after Conor Shaughnessy was caught in possession inside the box.

And Mousinho has pinpointed those failures as the cause of defeat.

He told The News: ‘The fans that were there saw decisions which didn’t quite go for us. I don’t think we lost the game because of that, but it certainly didn’t help.

‘I think it’s important to say we lost the game because of our own decisions and not because of the referee’s.

‘We had a bizarre five minutes, we gave the ball away a couple of times in our own box after dwelling on it and that cost us. It was really, really uncharacteristic from our team and the players we had on the pitch.

‘Just conceding the throw-in for the first goal was poor. We dwelt on the ball in the box, conceded the throw and then didn't deal with the threat. We are physical and strong enough to be able to deal with that threat.

‘For the second goal we dwelt on the ball in the box and was dispossessed. It’s very, very uncharacteristic for the players involved to do that - and to do it twice in one game is really strange.

‘I put defeat down to those mistakes, 100 per cent. We performed well around that mad five minutes, although obviously that five minutes is part of the performance and has to be taken into account.

‘We’ve had larger spells in games where we have encountered problems with the press, problems with X, Y and Z. We didn’t have any of that on Saturday, we just made a couple of errors. 

‘One of the big takeaways is you earn the right to make the mistakes we did if you are more clinical. As we aren’t that at the moment, you can’t afford to do any of those things. Against sides at any level you are punished.’

Meanwhile, Mousinho was frustrated at several fouls on Kamara in the first half which should have either resulted in penalties or a goal.

As it was, during one strong penalty claim, the Norwich loanee was given a yellow card for simulation.

Musinho added: ‘I can’t fathom for the life of me why Abu was booked for that, it’s just a penalty. If it’s not, then at worst it’s not a booking. That was two players going for a ball.

‘There was one five minutes before that when the ref played advantage, Abu beat his man, got into the box, and the Cheltenham player decided to barge him over the advertising hoardings.

‘On another, if he plays advantage for half a second after Abu was fouled then Paddy Lane puts the ball into the back of the net.

‘Then late on Anthony Scully somehow gets booked for a dive when he’s been pulled back inside the box, those things as an accumulation were frustrating.’