Gosport v Pompey: John Mousinho verdict

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey boss John Mousinho talks to The News following the Blues' opening pre-season friendly against Gosport Borough.

Transcript

00:00John, obviously a 3-1 win over Gosport, what were you looking for in tonight's game?

00:05Three things really, I think first of all we were after the fitness element and to make

00:08sure that the lads had their first touch of 11 v 11 at a competitive game. I know it's

00:13only a friendly but you can see there that there's plenty of competition, particularly

00:16when you come to a side like Gosport who had a really good season last year. We came here

00:22last pre-season and had a tough game there and I thought they provided us with some excellent

00:26opposition today. So first of all to get through the 90 minutes, which we've managed to do

00:29without any injuries, which is great. I think second of all it's the performance we're looking

00:33for, we're still really early in pre-season so there's lots of elements of the performance

00:37that we think we can improve but I thought we ticked the box there and there were some

00:40really good passes to play and some really good chances we created and then finally the

00:43results. So I think we ticked all three boxes there and it's been a really successful night.

00:47You had 22 players, each played 45 minutes as well in the first game.

00:51Yeah and that was the plan, we obviously when we were out in Croatia last week we got that

00:56block of 11 v 11 on the last day when we had that open training session. We got about

01:0035-36 minutes into the boys that day under different circumstances but nothing can really

01:06replicate being out on the grass and actually playing against another side. So that was

01:10the plan all along, we were always going to make those changes and then maybe towards

01:13the weekend we'll look at pushing minutes for a few more players.

01:16I know it's only the 45 minutes in the first friendly, did any players catch your eye there?

01:23You know I thought obviously in the first half I thought we had that concert outlet

01:26in Josh Murphy and I thought he was very very sharp, looked excellent. Amongst a few other

01:33really good performances I thought in the first half, second half again some really

01:36good performances. I thought that Cassini looked really sharp on the shoulder, Sami

01:42had provided some really good moments as well and we controlled the game really well through

01:45Tom and Owen Moxley. I also really liked what Terry did in the second half but overall I

01:50thought there were 22 players that performed really well considering it's the first pre-season

01:55game. And that's Jack Sparks' goal? Yeah an amazing strike really and Jack got himself

02:00in a really good position, narrow off the left there and ended up flying into the top

02:03corner so I'm really pleased. We know Jack's got that quality on set pieces, we know he's

02:07got that quality on crosses and I think if he can add goals to his game as well then

02:10he's going to really benefit. A couple of players were missing tonight, Gavin White

02:14and Colby Bishops, where were some of them? So Gavin's still coming back, he missed the

02:18first couple of days of pre-season and he's just coming back from a couple of niggles.

02:22We want to make sure that he's fully fit, he's been out on the grass the last couple

02:25of days and we expect him to train with us at the back end of this week. We're just making

02:31sure we're cautious with Gavin, he's just missed a bit of football. He had an illness

02:34at the back end of last season that saw him miss the Wigan and the Lincoln game I think

02:39that Gavin missed so we're just making sure that we take our time with Gavin, we don't

02:44rush it, at the same token he needs to get back out on the grass and go from there. What

02:48is his injury this time? He's just had a couple of minor niggles really with different

02:53sort of muscular injuries. There's been nothing that's too major, we're not really concerned

02:58about it but just making sure that he gets back and is fine. Is he likely to play at

03:02all on Friday or Saturday? Probably not, that's probably a step too far so we'll look to involve

03:05him the week after. And Colby? Colby didn't come out to Croatia with us, his wife is expecting

03:13their first child and so we didn't think, having not trained fully for the week we didn't

03:17think it was smart for him to come out and risk any injuries. Also his wife is still

03:22expecting so they've not had the baby yet so it's a tricky week for us but we don't

03:26want to push anything with Colby, we want to make sure that it's a very special time

03:31and we want to make sure that he's alright so when he's ready to go he's ready to go.

03:34He didn't come with you but you were still training back home wasn't he? Yeah and we

03:38left a couple of the staff back home so that we had enough staff there to take care of

03:43the likes of Colby, German Rolster with us, those sort of players it's important that

03:47we do that. Colby is always the consummate professional so once he has his child then

03:57we'll be in a different position.

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