‘Portsmouth and Southampton managers shouldn't be friends’: John Mousinho on strange post-match moment with Will Still
The curious moment between John Mousinho and Will Still occurred at the final whistle
John Mousinho shrugged off the relevance of his Will Still handshake and insisted: The managers of these two football clubs should never be mates.
Pompey and Southampton fought out a St Mary’s goalless draw in the first south-coast derby for 13-and-a-half years.
Afterwards, Mousinho produced a lingering and ‘strong’ handshake with his opposite number which was captured by television cameras - and surprised Still.
An amused Mousinho laughed off the moment when asked about it in the post-match press conference, claiming it was ‘nothing’.
Although he’s adamant the manager of Pompey should never be friends with his Southampton counterpart.
The Blues head coach told The News: ‘The handshake was nothing, me and him good mates, don’t worry about it!
‘It’s fine, it was a strong handshake. I just said good luck for the rest of the season.
‘I honestly don’t know him, I just kept getting peppered in my left ear all game. I try to concentrate on my own side and I clearly badger the fourth official a lot - and sometimes the referees. But I don’t do it to the opposition bench.
‘He made a good sprint onto the pitch early on, that was good, I didn't think you were allowed to do that. But that’s absolutely fine, no problems whatsoever.
‘When you are competing against each other that’s what you expect, I don’t want anyone to come off and be the best of friends after that game, we want that competition.
‘I certainly don’t think the two managers of these football clubs should be mates, there should be a bit of feisty competition between the two of them.
‘I absolutely love it.’
Still was unhappy with his team’s performance in their goalless draw, while the home supporters greeted the final whistle with boos.
Pompey came the closest to scoring in a match of few opportunities, when Andre Dozzell’s ninth-minute first-time shot struck the crossbar with keeper Gavin Bazunu beaten.
Despite being forced to change their keeper in the 26th minute because of an injury to Nicolas Schmid, his replacement Ben Killip also had little to do.
Although Southampton improved after the break, they could find no way past impressive centre-half pairing Regan Poole and Conor Shaughnessy as the spoils were shared.
The result leaves Pompey ninth in the Championship table after five matches, with Southampton below them in 15th after an ordinary start to their return to this level.
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