QPR 1 Portsmouth 2: Neil Allen's verdict - Blues finally find their Championship voice to reinvigorate season

Pompey’s head coach smiled when questioned in the post-match press conference on the state of a fading voice inflected with a new-found throaty tinge.

‘It can be like this after games, he replied. ‘I just thought it was really important for me to keep going on the sidelines today - and I probably felt the emotion of everything which went on in the game.’

Mousinho’s vocal cords may have been exhausted, yet Saturday’s Loftus Road result provided timely reinvigoration.

The League One champions headed to fellow strugglers QPR having failed to register victory in 10 matches in all competitions this season. Understandably, belief had begun to wane among some of the Fratton faithful.

Certainly Mousinho was continuing to maintain a brave front, demonstrating the impressive calibre of leadership required through increasingly tortured times.

He was a serving defender who breezed into football management in January 2023. Just 18 months later the former Oxford United skipper was crowned EFL League One Manager of the Season.

Since leading Pompey into the Championship, this has comfortably represented the toughest period of his fledgling career, with five points and no wins condemning his team to the relegation zone nine games in.

Indeed, aside from pre-season fixtures against non-league sides, the Pompey faithful had been unable to celebrate so much as a friendly victory since being presented with the League One title.

While scrambling around for the change of fortune so desperately required, the team personnel was shuffled and the playing system altered, anything to unearth some sort of winning formula.

That success finally arrived against Martí Cifuentes’ side as a 2-1 triumph presented the Blues with a first competitive win since the end of April at Lincoln.

The importance of that landmark cannot be understated, those buoyant travelling 1,744 supporters sang and danced long after the final whistle, lingering to serenade the substitutes going through their customary post-match training routine.

For Mousinho, who similarly drove on the players with passionate support and encouragement from the touchline, the game had almost cost him his voice, albeit temporary.

A clash with the side one place and two points ahead of them had been given added significance with the Blues slipping to the foot of the table shortly before kick-off following Cardiff’s early afternoon 5-0 demolition of Plymouth.

They responded magnificently to claim three priceless points at QPR. The hope is that can now stimulate them to inhabit greater heights in the league table.

Mousinho afterwards spoke of the performance deliberately not being ‘pretty at times’, featuring a directness previously unseen during his successful time at Fratton Park. Pompey’s fans weren’t complaining, needs must and all that.

The catalyst was Callum Lang, back from a groin injury which had sidelined him for three matches and thrown straight into the starting line-up, reflecting his importance to this side.

Recruiting him in the January transfer window to usher the Blues over the line in the League One title race was canny business from sporting director Rich Hughes, particularly considering the attacker’s previous Championship experience ensured this was not solely a short-term boost.

With four goals in eight games since stepping up a level this season, the 26-year-old is comfortably Pompey’s leading scorer and a talismanic attacking presence few of his team-mates can emulate.

Both of the visitors’ goals arrived courtesy of the man of the match’s tireless efforts, chasing and haranguing defenders, on this occasion the hapless Morgan Fox, who endured a torrid time.

The Blues had slipped behind after nine minutes, when the back three’s high line was exposed with a ball over the top, forcing Nicolas Schmid to intervene, leaving his penalty area to head the threat away.

Perhaps understandably, his header didn’t gather sufficient distance and Kader Dembele, once linked with a summer Fratton Park move, calmly lobbed the ball into the unguarded net to make it 1-0.

Thankfully, Pompey’s response was swift, with Jordan Williams knocking a pass down the right-hand side and, despite being second favourite to reach it, somehow Lang seized possession ahead of Fox.

He then cut across the byline, skipped a tackle and his cross was deflected into the path of the ever-impressive Freddie Potts to strike a first-time right-footed finish into the net.

Then, on 57 minutes, Lang appeared from nowhere to nudge the ball past Fox as the defender wound up his leg to clear, only to instead catch the Blues man inside the box.

The resulting penalty sent Paul Nardi the wrong way and Pompey had their first Championship win since defeating Crystal Palace 2-1 in April 2012 under Michael Appleton.

The Blues have at last found their voice this season - and Mousinho wouldn’t mind in the slightest about losing his in the process.