'Horrific': Furious Portsmouth boss John Mousinho blasts players after Blackburn Rovers heartbreak

A fuming John Mousinho reflected on Pompey’s late Ewood Park agony and insisted: ‘We managed the game horrifically’.

The Blues appeared to be heading for a third win in their last four away matches thanks to Connor Ogilvie’s 84th-minute strike at fellow strugglers Blackburn.

However, in the third minute of time added-on, Ryoya Morishita was allowed to cut in from the right and his delivery was headed home by Hayden Carter, via the inside of the far post.

It was heartbreak for Mousinho’s men, who had dominated possession and dictated play in a largely dull match desperately short of goal action.

And the head coach was afterwards furious over their inability to hold onto their late lead to secure three precious points.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Ultimately, it was going to be defined by the last 10 minutes.

‘We had 85 minutes of controlling the game, it was very even, we had much more possession. Blackburn had a really good chance early on, but, apart from that, it was pretty cagey - then we’ve given ourselves the opportunity to win the game.

‘But, after we scored the goal, we completely threw it away. We stopped winning headers, stopped winning challenges, stopped winning second balls, let them back inside for the goal, dropped too deep, committed too many bodies forward at times. We didn’t do any of the things we did so well for that 85 minutes.

‘There's obviously that mentally switch when you go a goal ahead and I can accept us sitting deep. Then we have to dominate underneath the ball, we have to win our challenges, you’ve got to come out with the second balls.

‘We managed the game horrifically, we managed it so, so poorly and, ultimately, we got what we deserved - which was Blackburn equalising in really poor fashion.

‘For that goal, I thought we had opportunities to clear our lines, there was a moment just before that where the two pressed the goalkeeper and we knew it was going to go longer, so we didn’t have bodies in the middle of the park.

‘Then we didn’t get tight enough for the cross, let them back inside for the cross and we got punished.’

It was a quiet afternoon for both goalkeepers and, had it finished goalless, certainly the Blues would have been the happier of the two sides.

However, having hauled themselves in front, it was unquestionably the visitors who were disappointed with the outcome - particularly Mousinho.

He added: ‘What we haven’t done well this season at all is control games, been in games, then nicked something from a set-piece - we did that today, we did what we haven't been doing.

‘We should be coming away from here thinking it was a quite even game, but we’ve got on top of them with a set-piece, so we’re going to see the game out.

‘However, the one time we’ve managed to achieve that this season, we threw it away.’