‘Incredible’: Huge Portsmouth promotion endorsement for John Mousinho from Wolves, Sunderland and West Brom favourite

John Mousinho has been backed to deliver promotion off the back of the ‘incredible’ job he’s carrying out at Pompey.

And Sky Sports pundit, Don Goodman, has lauded the miserly defence of Mousinho’s men, which has conceded just 12 goals from their first 16 league games.

Pompey return to action after the international break today along with their League One promotion rivals.

Goodman sees Oxford United as an unknown quantity after Des Buckingham’s appointment, and has backed the Blues and Ian Evatt’s Bolton to snare the division’s two automatic promotion slots.

Speaking to OLBG.com, Goodman said: ‘The job that John Mousinho has done is incredible. Portsmouth have only conceded 12 goals this season, and that's incredible. They're solid and teams struggle to break them down.

‘I think Portsmouth are very well set. I chose Bolton to go up before a ball was kicked because I really like what Ian Evatt is doing there. Oxford are a bit of an unknown as they've just appointed Des Buckingham, who is only 38 and has no obvious track record.

‘His first few games are enormous. They play Cheltenham away, and you'd expect Oxford to win that game. They then play Bolton and Peterborough, and that's where the games begin.

‘The first job a manager has to do is win over the fans, players and hierarchy. The only way you do that is by winning games. It's a big gamble by Oxford. I would have to predict them to drop out of the top three if I had to pick one to go, and that's due to the unknown. Portsmouth and Bolton are flying.

‘It'll be interesting to see how Des gets on. Of the chasing pack, you would expect Peterborough to go on a run. Derby can do that, too. There's a chance for a lot of these clubs, as I think the quality at the top of the table isn't as good as it has been over the last few seasons.’

Pompey aim to make it 27 league games unbeaten across the second half of last season and the 2022-23 campaign against Blackpool this afternoon.

Goodman has backed Mousinho to guide his side to success against decent opposition.

He added: ‘Portsmouth haven't lost this season, and I've gone for them to beat Blackpool 2-0, even if Blackpool are a decent League One team.’