Portsmouth boss hails 'brilliant' new attacking weapon driving Blues' Championship ambition

Jack Sparkes’ excellent delivery from corners and free-kick have proven a crucial attacking weapon since his summer arrival.

The former Exeter man has directly assisted goals against Wycombe (Conor Shaughnessy), Gillingham (Kusini Yengi) and Fulham Under-21s (Sean Raggett) from dead-ball situations.

It’s an outstanding consistency and reliability from such positions which has prompted Mousinho to label Sparkes as his best in the squad.

And the extra string to the 22-year-old’s bow is likely to influence his team selection ahead of fit-again Connor Ogilvie against Carlisle on Saturday.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Since I’ve been here, set-pieces have been crucial for us, you ignore them at your peril.

‘It’s one of the reasons why we are successful. Firstly because we gain quite a few of them and secondly the amount of work Joe Prodomo puts into set-pieces is paramount.

‘Yet the delivery is the most important thing. We can put as much emphasis on set-pieces as we like, but there are two things which make good set-pieces – delivery and an aggressive willingness to attack the ball.

‘Jack is brilliant, he delivers the ball with a lot of pace and it’s quite flat as well, so it’s really, really difficult to defend. It’s like you see with his crosses a lot of the time, he can wrap his foot around the ball and the trajectory he gets is superb.

‘They come in at a really difficult angle for defenders to deal with and at pace, which makes it easier for attackers to get on top of, so they just need to deflect the ball rather than have to put any power on it.

‘Wycombe is a perfect example of our set-pieces. If you deliver a good ball into a good area and have someone who aggressively attacks it, then you get success off the back of it.

‘At the moment, Jack is our best set-piece taker. There are a couple who can possibly compete, but Jack really has proven he is right up there in terms of set-piece takers.

‘Alex Robertson has taken a couple, Paddy has, Joe Rafferty has chipped in with a couple as well, but Jack is certainly consistent and probably our best.’

Sparkes’ sole assist for Exeter last season came from open play against Accrington in March.

He now has four in 16 outings this term in Pompey colours.

Mousinho added: ‘Jack took them at Exeter and we looked at that as an extra factor, although not the main factor in recruitment.

‘We wanted to increase set-piece production and output – and one of the best ways was to get in a good set-piece taker.’