‘Very, very different’: Portsmouth boss pinpoints exactly where play-off hopes have been killed

The Blues boss feels three draws over nine days have, in all likelihood, put paid to hopes of making the top six this term. And Mousinho feels his players will look back and think about what could have been, after failing to harvest more points over that period.

A draw at MK Dons arrived on Good Friday, with Pompey losing their way after assuming the ascendancy following Joe Morrell’s red card. The same frustratingly followed in a very winnable home game against Morecambe, with the performance coming up short of the standards required.

Pompey then performed poorly for long periods against an injury-ravaged Shrewsbury side, who’d lost four games on the spin going into the 1-1 draw.

With six points the gap to the top six, turning those draws into wins would paint a very different picture with four games to go. Mousinho feels that will be something the players need to reflect on when, as looks the case, Pompey come up short this season.

He said: ‘We will look back at the last three games - and it will feel like six points dropped. It certainly feels that way. I don’t think too much is going to take that, because we’re not going to places like MK and Shrewsbury and just clinging on to results from the start.

‘We know we have to beat Morecambe, if we are to have any chance of doing anything in the league. In those three games we have to be a bit better and come away with six more points. Then we are in the mix for the play-offs and we’d have a very, very different outcome on things.

‘I think we will rue those last nine or 10 days in terms of missed opportunities, because we haven’t come away from any of those games thinking they weren’t winnable.

A maximum return from the final four games would give Pompey 76 points - six more than sixth-placed Peterborough currently have. Mousinho feels the team have to take the shackles off with little expectation and reach for that total.

He added: ‘We essentially have nothing to lose with our league position and that’s how we have to go into our final four games - and play with that freedom. We have to try to win all four starting at Oxford on Tuesday, who are scrapping for their lives at the bottom of the league.’