Watch: The comical moment Portsmouth midfielder Joe Morrell trips Bolton's Southampton loanee Dan N'Lundulu - and why John Mousinho has no problem with it

The Blues boss said the Welshman did not cross the line when he tripped the on-loan Southampton player off the ball shortly after his 79th-minute introduction.

Footage of the incident has appeared online, with a post uploaded onto Twitter by @Pompey_Goals viewed more than 85,000 times.

The tweet has been accompanied by many likes and comments from amused Pompey supporters, with some Blues fans also revelling in assistant head coach Jon Harley’s reaction after he was seen confronting Trotters boss Ian Evatt in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

Now Mousinho has given his verdict on the moment, which no doubt played a part in members of both teams squaring up to each other at the final whistle.

And while he urged his players not to risk getting sent off, he did encourage his troops to stand up for themselves in the heat of battle.

Speaking at Thursday night’s meeting of the Chichester Portsmouth FC Supporters’ Club, Mousinho said: ‘I genuinely haven’t seen the incident at the end of the game.

‘At the end of the game, when everything has kicked off, I was shaking hands with the fourth official and Ian Evatt.

‘I think the incident before that, though, I think the lad that came on (N’Lundulu), he swung out at Joe and I think there was a sort of David Beckhamesque from 1998 leg raise.

‘Now I don’t think it crosses the line, if I’m honest, not at all.

‘Joe’s a competitor and what you saw from Joe is he’s going to stand up to players like that and that’s something to be said when you’re Joe’s stature and height.

‘I think we saw that at Fleetwood. He stood up to Brendan Wiredu, who had a right go at him and he stood up to him.

‘That’s what we want. So not at all (did he cross the line). We want our players to stand up to these physical confrontations.

‘Not get sent off, though. That’s the only bit of it – don’t get sent off.

‘If you’re going to go toe-to-toe with someone, do it in the right way.’