Portsmouth boss’ Colby Bishop confidence admission as striker’s Championship goal drought deepens against Bristol City
It’s 15 Championship games without a goal for Colby Bishop. Pompey boss John Mousinho discusses his difficulties in front of goal.
John Mousinho acknowledged Colby Bishop’s barren run is taking its toll on his confidence.
And the Pompey boss called on his front-line striker to focus on his performance levels, as he toils in front of goal amid his side’s recent struggles.
15 games without Championship goal for Bishop
Bishop drew another blank in the disappointing 1-0 reverse at Fratton Park on Saturday, as his side fell into the Championship bottom three.
That now makes it 15 games without a finish for the side’s top scorer for each of the past three seasons, with a single goal at West Brom to his name this term.
The impact of that run could be seen on the 29-year-old’s game, with some loose passes and tension being felt through a difficult period in the League One title winner’s Pompey career.
Mousinho admitted Bishop’s belief has taken a hit, with a goal required to see his morale boosted.
He said: ‘I think the biggest thing for Colby is putting the ball in the back of the net.
‘If he takes that chance at the end you would’ve seen a different demeanour, because if lifts the monkey off his back.
‘That’s going to be a big moment when he scores.
‘The big thing for Colby for him and all the boys is, in the absence of scoring, his performance is good.
‘I think it’s one of those where it’s difficult to say it isn’t (his confidence is impacted).
‘I still think Colby is a confident player who wants to go out there, play and score.
‘But any time we lose as much as we have recently and gone through a patch where you haven’t scored then, yes, confidence will be knocked.’
Mousinho has watched his team follow up an impressive success over Millwall, which had looked to inject impetus into the season, with two desperately disappointing results and performances and Sheffield United and Bristol City.
He knows answers need to be found, as next weekend’s trip to Charlton Athletic starts another big period of three games in eight days.
Mousinho added: ‘That’s the big question we need to answer.
‘At the minute we’re a team who doesn’t seem to be able to do anything between being very, very good and blowing teams away.
‘You look at certain games, think it’s a very, very good performance and we look a proper side.
‘There’s nothing too much in between at the moment, like at the start of the season.
‘Now it feels like we’re either going to produce what we did last weekend, or what we did in the second half at Sheffield United and again against Bristol City. We need to get to grips with it.
‘I think so, yes (we’ll find out about the team’s character). We’ll get back into training on Monday and get back into the swing of things next week.
‘We have nine points to play with three massive games, so yes we’ll find out about the side then.’