'Slightly disappointed': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho rues Southampton stalemate
The first south-coast derby in 13-and-a-half years ended in a goalless draw
John Mousinho remains ‘slightly disappointed’ Pompey left St Mary’s with merely a point.
Instead he is adamant the Blues could have claimed victory from the first south-coast derby for 13-and-a-half years.
It was honours even on Sunday as the sides shared a goalless draw from a match in which neither keeper was particularly busy.
Pompey certainly came closest when Andre Dozzell’s ninth-minute first-time shot struck the bar, while Southampton were unable to capitalise when the hosts were forced to introduce Ben Killip for the injured Nicolas Schmid.
Unquestionably, many of the Fratton faithful would have accepted a draw before kick-off, especially as Will Still’s side are among the promotion favourites.
But Mousinho felt ‘on the balance of play’ his Blues side could have claimed more than just a point.
‘We probably had the better of the opportunities’
He told The News: ‘On the balance of the game, it will be an interesting one to watch back.
‘I thought we probably had the better of the opportunities and chances, but, as the game wore on, we made those substitutions to be a bit more defensive and take the point, which was clear what we were doing at the time.
‘But I’m slightly disappointed from the first half not to go into the break a goal or two goals up, which would have made a big difference.
‘It’s sort of a better point for us if you look at the balance going into the game and the two sides comparatively of where we are versus Southampton.
‘However, on the balance of the game I don’t think so whatsoever, I think we’ll be slightly disappointed.
‘We wanted to cause issues and try to press high up and win the ball back high up, which we did really well in the first half. I thought there would be plenty of opportunities for us to actually dominate the ball as well at times.
‘For 45 minutes, we did it really well. We looked a real threat when we were pressing Southampton, they didn’t cause us too many problems whatsoever.
‘But we couldn't sustain that for the 90 minutes. Although, if you can’t sustain that high press, then dropping in and being really hard to beat is the next best thing.’
Southampton boos at the final whistle
Mousinho, though, was delighted with how his team coped with the atmosphere.
He added: ‘I was pleased with the way we handled the occasion. It was a big build-up in terms of the two weeks of the international break, it had been a 13-year build-up for the football club and you can feel it with the atmosphere.
‘Whether it’s on social media, whether it’s in the media, whether it’s living in the city, you can definitely feel the pent up frustration of Pompey being where they have been over the past 13 years and always looking up - and I thought the players handled that superbly.
‘I came out in the warm-up and it was an electric atmosphere. We killed that off very, very effectively and very, very efficiently as the game went on.
‘That was really pleasing because sometimes you can come to these places as the underdog and maybe not handle it that well, but we handled it well and the work-rate was superb.’
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