'I want him to be angry': Portsmouth boss lifts lid on shock Middlesbrough axing of Luton loanee Jacob Brown
The Luton loanee was surprisingly left out of the Blues’ squad at Middlesbrough on Saturday
He was recruited from Luton on transfer deadline day to ignite the goal-shy attack of a Pompey side battling for their Championship future.
However, former Premier League striker Jacob Brown was surprisingly left out of Saturday’s 20-man squad at Middlesbrough.
According to John Mousinho, the 28-year-old loanee was fit and available for duty, travelling with the Blues to the Riverside Stadium, albeit serving as 21st man.
With Thomas Waddingham back from a seven-and-a-half month injury lay-off, the young Australian was instead preferred to Brown on Pompey’s nine-man bench.
And Mousinho has explained why he omitted the former Stoke man from his match-day plans after one goal in 10 outings.
‘It’s not clear cut, Jacob hasn’t done anything wrong’
He told The News: ‘Jacob was there (on Saturday), but it was just down to squad selection.
‘Having Tom back, we obviously decided to go with him. It was a decision I made on Saturday morning.
‘It’s not clear cut, Jacob hasn’t done anything wrong, we just look at the bench to get the balance of who you want to bring on - and what I saw was a situation where Tom would probably come on ahead of him.
‘Everyone is different, the players we have in the squad, the players we have on the bench. I think they’ve got different qualities and we just have to weigh that up.
‘We looked at every scenario and there were definitely scenarios where Browny would have come on, but someone had to miss out.
‘We brought Ibs (Bowat) into the fold and thankfully we did because we needed him at Middlesbrough with that lack of cover at left-back with Connor Ogilvie out and Jojo (Dia) struggling physically towards the end.
‘We brought Tom back for a number of reasons, but those are just decisions you make day to day, as with team selection. Sometimes you get them right, sometimes you don’t.’
Ibane Bowat and Thomas Waddingham recalled to squad
With Ogilvie suspended and Brown dropped, Bowat and Waddingham represented the only changes to the 20-man squad which had been on duty for the Easter Monday 2-2 draw against Oxford United.
Although Waddingham subsequently wasn’t among the four substitutes used by Mousinho in the dramatic 1-0 triumph at Middlesbrough, the recalled Bowat did play his part.
He was introduced for Jordan Williams at left-back in the 76th minute, representing a first outing in eight matches for the ex-Fulham man, having not featured since February’s 2-1 loss at Wrexham.
Meanwhile, speaking after the game, Mousinho praised ‘top pro’ Brown’s reaction after learning of the decision to leave him out - and planned to meet him yesterday to fully explain the reasoning.
‘I want him to be frustrated and angry’
He added: ‘I spoke to Jacob really briefly on Saturday morning, I said I would give him the full breakdown the next day.
‘After the game, I turned around and saw him right up with all the boys celebrating, being the top pro that he is.
‘I don’t want him to be pleased with it (not being in the squad), I want him to be frustrated and angry - and we can then have that conversation when I give him my reasons.
‘The most important thing is the reaction which I saw on Saturday, which was brilliant.’