'There's absolutely no use in patting yourself on the back': Inside the mindset of the ambitious Portsmouth boss who can never be satisfied
A first win in five matches was a moment for the nervy Fratton faithful to savour, not that John Mousinho was satisfied.
The Blues’ 2-1 success over fellow relegation strugglers Cardiff on Tuesday evening represented a shallow victory for a head coach intent on driving standards.
It may have provided a welcome end to a run of 22 days without a triumph in the survival scrap, but Mousinho couldn’t disguise his disappointment over aspects of Pompey’s display.
His criticism mainly centred on the first-half display, irrespective of the hosts entering the interval clutching a 2-1 lead which, thankfully, wasn’t overhauled.
Yet Mousinho wants better in his insatiable appetite for Blues success - and even three crucial points against Cardiff failed to leave him content.
He told The News: ‘There have been plenty of times when we’ve fallen way below our standards this season. But, particularly, at home we have set really high standards.
‘I thought we made really, really poor decisions in the moment against Cardiff. Sometimes, when things aren’t going well and sides are playing well against you, it can be tough, but we caused ourselves a lot of issues.
‘We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, even when we had chances to settle the ball down to play on the counter attack.
‘We take a shot from 35-yards rather than sliding in a winger and making it one-v-one. That’s just one example off the top of my head where we didn’t stick to the script in terms of what we’d done really well for 20 minutes. We got punished for it and were clinging on going into half-time.
‘We need to set those standards, you can't be happy with a performance like that, even when we’ve won. You can’t be happy against Sheffield United by not winning because we didn’t put the ball into the back of the net, even though it was a good performance.
‘You need to put both together - and then we’re still going to find things we want to improve upon.
‘We’ve never been satisfied at any point this season. Whether we’ve won, lost or drawn, that’s the way you have to approach things in professional sport.
‘There is absolutely no use in patting yourself on the back and thinking you've cracked it, at that point you’re in real trouble. We’ve tried to strive for that at the football club ever since I have been here.
‘I don’t like to hark back on it too much, but last year was a case in point. We were never happy at any point in the season, right up until we got promoted. It was always about improvement, getting better.
‘It has been to a slightly different extent this season because we’ve probably had harsher lessons, more brutal lessons, more obvious lessons to learn and to take.’
A second victory inside a week - and once more against relegation rivals - would be priceless for Pompey in their ongoing battle to stay up.
Unquestionably, Mousinho won’t be accepting second best.
He added: ‘We don’t want to be here to make up the numbers. We’ve been an interesting outfit this year, probably from an external perspective.
‘There have been some really, really good performances, some really, really poor performances, and everything in between as well.
‘We’re certainly striving to cut out those poor performances. If we lose games, lose games in the right way, the same if we draw games. There are certain things I would accept on a football pitch and certain things I don’t think are acceptable.
‘I think the fans are aligned with that, the football club is aligned with that. We are very similar.’