Portsmouth boss on reasons behind top-scorer's surprise omission - and an agonising dilemma

John Mousinho has explained why he dropped leading scorer Colby Bishop for Kusini Yengi - and admits his Reading striking dilemma.

Back from the Asian Cup, Yengi was handed his first League One start in almost two months for the midweek visit of Cambridge United.

By doing so, Mousinho made the bold decision to omit 15-goal Bishop from his starting XI, having largely been an automatic choice during his 18 months at Fratton Park.

Subsequently, Yengi netted a penalty in the 3-1 triumph which marked a fifth win in six matches for the resurgent Blues.

And Mousinho has lifted the lid on his reasoning behind that striker selection.

He told The News: ‘We haven’t had a chance to give Colby any rest over the last six weeks because Kas has been with Australia, so thought it was a really good opportunity for us to freshen things up.

‘His last league start was Shrewsbury, he was part of the side which won four on the spin after we’d had that disappointment against Blackpool.

‘He scored, was a real threat - and he’s always been a threat whenever we have seen him play. We’ve given Colby a rest and it’s a really nice option for us to have.

‘One of the things we try hard with the lads is getting over that no-one has been dropped, we rotate players, we rest players.

‘I know players want to play all the time, Colby wants to play in every single minute of every game, he wants to score every time he’s on the pitch.

‘But all I heard when we scored our goals was the enthusiasm of the bench behind me, Colby included. I was really, really pleased with that.

‘Kas was really lively from the start, he caused the two centre-halves problems, he won the penalty, put it into the back of the net and was instrumental in the second goal. He made things happen.

‘I thought he led the line really well and I’m really pleased with his performance.’

Bishop has 39 goals in 87 appearances since moving from Accrington in July 2022 under Danny Cowley.

While Yengi has also enjoyed an explosive start to his Pompey career, scoring on his debut against Bristol Rovers and now totalling eight goals in 18 outings.

Mousinho added: ‘We have Reading next and, regardless of those sort of performances, Kas has always been a player in our thoughts.

‘It has been difficult to get him the game time he probably deserves because of the fact Colby is our top scorer, one of the top centre-forwards in the league and always really, really top performer for us.

‘I definitely have quite a few dilemmas across the pitch - and that is one of them.’