‘The lowest point’: Portsmouth boss faces wrath as supporters turn in face of QPR shame
Patience snapped among Pompey supporters amid the 6-1 QPR thrashing. John Mousinho respond to that reaction, as his Fratton tenure hits a low ebb.
John Mousinho admitted the QPR humiliation is the lowest point of his managerial career as he faced the fury of the Pompey faithful.
But the Blues boss insisted he and his players had to feel the wrath of travelling supporters, as their patience snapped in the face of the embarrassing 6-1 thrashing at Loftus Road.
Mousinho: ‘It feels like the lowest point’
Fans vented their anger through the insipid effort from their players, which made it six games without a win and leave the spectre of Championship relegation hanging over the club with eight matches remaining.
Supporters chanted ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ and ‘we’re going down with the Wednesday’, with Anti-Eisner songs aired at Loftus Road.
Mousinho made no effort to cover up how bleak it felt, though his side somehow still remain outside of the Championship bottom three.
He said: ‘It feels like the lowest point.
‘Every loss feels like the lowest point of the season, then things then settle down towards the end of the week.
‘But this will hurt for a long time, especially as we have two weeks until the next game.
‘The loss in isolation is really poor, but it’s framed by the fact we’ve haven’t picked up enough points over the past six games.
‘It feels really low and it should - I don’t think we need to hide away from that.
‘We have been upwardly mobile in other periods of my time at Portsmouth head coach, but we’re not at the minute.
‘We’ve put in a really poor run of form with those six games, but we’re still in control of what we want to achieve.’
Mousinho felt it was necessary for Pompey’s players not to face supporters after the game, rather than duck away from going to an away end where the fury was clear to see.
Ultimately the head coach believes the buck has to stop with him, when it comes to apportioning where the blame lies for the woeful performance.
Mousinho added: ‘When we win games we go over to the fans and thank them for the travel and thank them for spending their money and their support. So when we lose games we need to take our medicine.
‘There are plenty of players who would never have faced it, I’ve seen time and time again players just walk off the pitch.
Pompey boss: ‘I have to go and take it - it’s my responsibility’
‘I guess it’s a very small bit of positivity from my opinion that the players are prepared to face it. That tells me they understand.
‘I look at it and think the fans aren’t wrong.
‘The reaction is what it is. Sometimes rarely fans can get it wrong, but they are not looking at a game where they’re thinking we’re unlucky.
‘The reaction is one of anger, the reaction is one of frustration and the reaction is one of disappointment.
‘There’s absolutely no point in us hiding away from that - we have to go and face the music.
‘From my point of view I have to go and take it. It’s my responsibility to put the team out like I did and it’s my responsibility we lost the game 6-1.
‘So I have to face it and, fair play to them, there’s not a set of fans in the world who would’ve taken that.’