Portsmouth boss reveals reasons he chose Marlon Pack over Ryley Towler for Luton Town defeat

And the Pompey boss pinpointed the success of Marlon Pack’s partnership with Regan Poole, as being the key to picking the pair together amid his side’s injury crisis.

The Blues have been rocked by the news the season is over for Hayden Matthews with Rob Atkinson out for up to eight weeks, after being hit with issues against QPR. With Conor Shaughnessy out for up to a couple of months with a hamstring issue, it leaves Regan Poole and Towler as the only fit centre-backs in Mousinho’s squad.

The Pompey boss opted to bring midfielder Marlon Pack into his back line, however, after employing his skipper there for 15 games last year. Pompey won six and drew two games in that time, after a single win from 15 after their Championship return.

There were mistakes from the Buckland boy across that period, as he operated in a two-man central defensive partnership for the first time in his career.

Four of those games were alongside Poole with the Blues unbeaten in that time, convincing Mousinho of the value of their partnership.

‘When asked why picked Marlon Pack ahead of Towler, Mousinho said: ‘We looked at that partnership (Poole and Pack) and thought that was the right thing to do.

‘We looked at the four previous games they played together - Preston home, Swansea away, Bristol City home and Norwich at home.

‘We’d taken eight points from those games and formed a really good partnership, so that was the thinking about that.’

Towler returned to the bench at Luton after six games out of the squad, as he stayed at Fratton Park despite talk of a January exit on loan. There’s a clamour for the popular figure to be involved among some sections of supporters, though Mousinho is leaning towards using Pack there at present.

The Pompey boss is clear he feels there’s evidence to back making that decision.

He said: ‘I do (have confidence in Marlon), I do to be honest.

‘We’ve got players in there we’ve played and won games with - won big games and performed really well. I think we’ve got more than enough to compete, we’re obviously outside of the transfer window so there’s not a lot we can do about that anyway.’

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