"Ridiculous" - John Mousinho hits out at Portsmouth FC relegation claim | OneFootball

The Pompey boss has had his say on the club’s survival campaign

John Mousinho has delivered his verdict on Portsmouth FC’s current survival picture.

Pompey suffered a damaging 2-1 home loss to bottom-of-the-league Plymouth Argyle on Wednesday night.

It followed an unlikely 1-0 win at Fratton Park against league leaders Leeds United just days earlier, in a pair of results few could have predicted.

Following their topsy-turvy form, Mousinho weighed in on where it leaves the club looking forward.

Mousinho claims Portsmouth are still in ‘scrap’ for survival

Despite sitting seven points and five places clear of the dropzone, Mousinho was determined to make clear the job isn’t yet done.

“I keep saying it and I can’t emphasise the point anymore,” the 38-year-old began, as quoted by the Lancashire Post. “Derby have picked up six points in four days, Luton have won, Plymouth have won, Stoke have won, Hull have won.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing for us to get carried away with anything other than thinking we are in a scrap and have to do everything we possibly can to make sure we pick up enough points.”

With Preston North End up next, it’s another side in and around the same position as Pompey, with a win potentially taking them closer to the top half.

Pompey boss wants a stronger winning mentality

While the Leeds win was great, and a sign of what this Portsmouth side are capable of on their day, Mousinho feels, somewhat unusually, that it’s dealing with wins that his team needs to get better at.

Quoted in the Lancashire Post, he said: “I keep saying it, whenever we pick up a win, we need that mentality as a football club to say: ‘Fine, we’ve got to go again and again and again’. Because very, very quickly, you get dragged back into it.

“We have to be a lot better at dealing with that. Absolutely, that has been my message to the players, my message to the media; that is what I genuinely believe.

“There can’t be any more evidence than there has been this week where the bottom three sides have won, including Derby picking up six points. It’s very tight.”

Plymouth loss will be a sore point, but Portsmouth must bounce back

Losing to the bottom of the league will never sit well with any club, but the manner of Pompey’s loss will be frustrating.

Not only had they just defeated one of the league’s best sides at the same venue days earlier, but they also dominated Plymouth on Wednesday, retaining a whopping 80 percent of possession.

And they created chances, hauling an xG of 1.72 compared to Plymouth’s 0.25.

There is, of course, only one stat that matters – goals scored – but it will be a source of some worry that Portsmouth failed to make such domination pay, especially against one of the league’s poorer sides.

With only nine points now separating Pompey from the bottom of the league, and all the lower sides capable of picking up points, Mousinho is right to make clear the club aren’t yet safe.

If they stop picking up points, it would only take a few results to go against them elsewhere to be dragged straight back into the relegation fold.