‘No excuses’: Portsmouth boss points finger at what cost side eye-catching Stoke City victory

The Blues boss believes his side not making more of their dominance before the break and poor second-half decisions led to their 2-1 loss to the Potters.

And a frustrated Mousino insisted there were ‘no excuses’ for the manner in which his men threw away the opportunity to take another eye-catching Championship scalp.

Pompey produced one of their best halves of the season as they pushed back their in-form opponents for long periods before the break, but had only Tyrese Shade’s goal to show for their endeavours at the break.

Nico Schmid is under the spotlight for his role in both of Stoke’s second-half goals in their comeback success.

But Mousinho feels not being further in front at the interval was a significant factor in the eventual loss, along with poor decisions after the restart.

He said: ‘The first half ranks really strongly (for the season).

‘It was right up there, especially when you pair that with the fact we were playing a side who’s just gone top, is littered with talent and spent a huge amount in the summer.

‘That was always the danger going in just a goal up at half-time. We needed, when we had that spell at the end of the first half towards half-time, to really put Stoke to the sword in that 10-15 minute period.

‘They were always going to come back into it and bring players on.

‘I don’t think Stoke have created a huge amount in open play or clearcut chances, though.

‘The first goal comes from us being in possession in our half and giving it away sloppily. Then we haven’t dealt with the cross. It’s really frustrating.

‘Not scoring more is definitely something and the other thing is, if we’re not scoring, a clean sheet in the second half wins it for us.

‘When Stoke equalise then, fine, we need to reset, go again and make the changes we need to make. If we’re poor in the second half then fine come away with a point. I still think there’s no excuse for losing the game in that manner.’

Pompey went into the Stoke game unbeaten in six and with a single loss in the past 10 games, but lost both Iyad Mohamed and Marko Milovanović after Tuesday’s impressive win.

Mousinho could see why there would be reservations about his side, against a high-flying Stoke outfit who spent north of £30m this summer.

That made the manner of how the defeat unfolded even more galling for the Blues head coach.

He added: ‘There was a worry today over losing the number nine we signed in the summer, and one of our senior players in the middle of the park whose started every game since Sheffield United and been a lynchpin in midfield.

‘We’ve moved things around a bit and maybe there was a worry over is this going to work? It worked really well.

‘The players who came in gave us a platform to go and improve and try to win the game.

‘It’s not a game where we’ll look back and think this is a game too far for us or Stoke had too much for us.

‘We lost the game because we didn’t make the right decisions.‘