'How on earth?': Portsmouth boss hits out at referee over goal controversy in Burnley stalemate
The Blues remain 11th in the Championship following a goalless draw at Burnley
John Mousinho admits he is ‘baffled’ by the decision to controversially rule out Marlon Pack’s goal against Burnley.
In a match which finished goalless, Pompey will be the happier with the point in a match where they defended for long spells and didn’t test opposition goalkeeper Gregoire Coudert.
Their only attempt on target arrived in the 14th minute, when Coudert punched the ball out and Pack struck it into an empty net from the edge of the penalty area.
However, referee Ruebyn Ricardo ruled it out, adjudging the Clarets’ keeper was fouled by Ryan Kavuma-McQueen as he came out to successfully punch the ball.
And Mousinho has hit out at the first-half decision after the Turf Moor clash finished in a stalemate.
‘I was really baffled by that at the time’
He told The News: ‘I couldn’t quite understand why it was disallowed. The goalkeeper comes right over the top of Ryan, punches it to Marlon and he scores.
‘I was really baffled by that at the time, I have watched it back as well. I might be watching it back with Pompey glasses, but I just can’t see how on earth that has been given as a foul. It should have been a goal.
‘We can talk about it forever and a day in terms of goalkeepers and their protection. The goalkeeper has come for the ball, he’s punched it, which was what he was trying to do. That was obviously one of many frustrations I had on the day.
‘On one of the days where we weren’t particularly at it, particularly in the first half, if you score from that moment, if you score from a set-piece then fine, you may come away with a different result.
‘But we didn’t quite create enough and that was frustrating, particularly in the second half, because we got into much better positions.’
A disgruntled Mousinho, who picked up a second-half booking, decided against speaking to Ricardo after the game.
Instead he preferred to keep his emotions in check - and now plans to raise his displeasure with a refereeing representative on Sunday.
‘That was the least of my worries’
He added: ‘I’ll speak to the refereeing coach tomorrow, I have a really good relationship with them.
‘There were so many things I wanted to say to them and sometimes the high emotions post-game don’t particularly help, so I will leave it down and move on.
‘I was booked after the challenge on Jayden (Meghoma) down on the left-hand side where he gets cleaned out and I couldn’t quite believe how it wasn’t given.
‘I spoke to the fourth official at the time and he said “I will come back and speak to you, don’t make anything of it now”. So I was waiting for him to come back and speak to me, I was asking him if he would speak to me about that challenge.
‘Of all the things I do on the touchline, that moment didn’t seem to be the one to book me, but I’ll just take it and move on. That was the least of my worries from today, there’s plenty of other things to be concerned about.’