Thank you and farewell: Portsmouth boss on an emotional weekend as end of an era for special champions

For John Mousinho, there will be a ‘tinge of sadness’ as Pompey’s title-winning squad spend one final weekend together before being dismantled.

Yet the pragmatic Blues’ head coach is adamant it’s an inevitable end of an era as he now turns his focus on the forthcoming Championship challenge.

Saturday’s trip to Lincoln marks the final match of the League One campaign, followed by Southsea Common’s Sunday festivities, which will involve all squad members.

Come Monday, loanees Myles-Peart Harris, Abu Kamara, Alex Robertson and Tino Anjorin will return to their parent clubs.

Meanwhile, Pompey’s 14 out-of-contract players will next week discover whether they have a Fratton Park future, including Sean Raggett, Marlon Pack, Joe Morrell, Connor Ogilvie and Joe Rafferty.

What is certain, however, is after Saturday, the League One champions will never again play alongside each other.

Mousinho told The News: ‘There will be a tinge of sadness, but you’ve just got to be realistic with football, it happens.

‘If we’d have been promoted or won the league on the last day of the season, it’s all a bit of a whirlwind and you don’t have too much time to enjoy everything. Thankfully, we’ve had plenty of time to enjoy it.

‘It has settled down this week, we have another brilliant day coming up on Sunday, so I think overall there’s a bit of sentiment. Then, unfortunately, come Monday morning that’s all gone and you have to get on with the job.

‘From my point of view, it's not a nice thing to have to release players at the back end of the season, yet it happens every single year, there’s never going to be a year when you don’t release anybody.

‘It’s a tough thing, a tough thing for players to face, a tough thing for the club to face. It’s about getting the right balance between what players deserve and what's right for the football club in terms of what we think is going to make us competitive at the next level.

‘That is a difficult thing. We did it at the back end of last year in terms of what players might deserve versus what we thought might make us competitive at the top end of League One.

‘With everything, we need to balance next season and how competitive we must be - and that’s what we’ll be making those decisions based on.’

After 239 Pompey appearances, Lincoln could represent Raggett’s farewell - ironically against a former club.

Ogilvie (117 games), Pack (78) and Rafferty (67) are also reaching the end of their existing contracts, while Morrell (105) and Swanson (44) are injured.

Definitely leaving will be the four loanees - and it remains to be seen whether any return to bolster the Blues in the Championship.

Mousinho added: ‘The four loanees have all had a huge impact on what we’ve been able to do this season.

‘That’s obviously another market we will explore. We wanted to be less reliant on loans this year, I think we’ve managed to achieve that, while having some really excellent loan performances.’