Portsmouth boss’ honest admission over feeling pressure as side rediscover firepower to ease tension
A first win in seven Championship games lifted Fratton Park against Millwall and eased the pressure John Mousinho admitted he could sense.
John Mousinho confessed he was feeling the heat as Pompey rediscovered their firepower to blow away Millwall.
Now the Blues boss has demanded his side carry their goal threat forward, after injecting impetus back into their season with a rain-soaked 3-1 win at Fratton Park.
Victory ended six league games without success and improved a run of a single Championship win in 11 games, with a dominant showing over the 10-man Lions.
The growing angst was becoming more palpable, with Mousinho acknowledging an air of tension going into the game.
That never translated into the Fratton Park atmosphere, however, as supporters backed the team throughout with Mousinho rewarded for shaking up his team with five changes.
He said: ‘Yes, I felt it (the pressure) not just from the football club but internally in terms of what I put on myself.
‘The club have always been amazing with me, but we won one in 15 last season and there didn’t feel like an ounce of pressure externally or from above.
‘We probably felt some tension before the game, but during the game in the ground it never felt like that. We fed off the crowd and they fed off what we’re doing.
‘I think whatever team you pick you can go for the safe options over what might seem bold decisions.
‘But it didn’t seem in the week we were making any decisions which were too bold. It was probably more off the back of what we see every day, which is easy enough I suppose.
‘We’ve seen certain players play this week in certain ways in certain positions, so it didn’t really feel like that.’
Pompey’s impressive three-goal salvo came via world-class efforts from Zak Swanson and Jordan Williams, with top scorer Adrian Segecic adding his fourth finish of the season.
It’s the first time the Blues have hit three goals at home in 11 months, with it the first time they’ve won a game by more than one goal this term.
Now the challenge is to keep the end product coming ahead of the trip to Sheffield United and Bristol City’s visit to PO4 next weekend.
Mousinho added: ‘We have to keep going and score more goals, it’s the thing which has let us down at times this season.
‘We had the tight game against Stoke when we didn’t put the ball in the net and should’ve won, we had the tight game against Wrexham and we end up drawing because we’re not quite ruthless enough.
‘Today we scored some good goals. We still had a few chances we should’ve scored, but we scored some good goals.
‘The pace is really important. I thought Colby was brilliant without scoring a goal. He’ll be frustrated because he wants the goal, but he leads the press and there’s that pace beyond him.
‘We’ve tweaked and played around with things over the past few weeks. Some of it’s worked, some of it hasn’t but we didn’t pick up enough points from the Middlesbrough game through to Hull. Having the extra options has made a difference.’