St Mary’s will host the first south-coast derby in the league in 13-and-a-half years
John Mousinho believes Southampton are among the leading contenders to reach the Premier League.
Yet he is convinced that, with the right mindset, his maturing Pompey team roared on by the Fratton faithful can maintain their encouraging progress and make life difficult for Will Still’s men.
The eighth-placed Blues travel to St Mary’s on Sunday occupying a position five higher and two points better off than their hosts following the opening month of the campaign.
John Mousinho was delighted his his team's defensive display in the 1-1 draw at West Brom. Picture: Manjit Narotra/ProSportsImagesplaceholder image
John Mousinho was delighted his his team's defensive display in the 1-1 draw at West Brom. Picture: Manjit Narotra/ProSportsImages | Manjit Narotra/ProSportsImages
Not that Mousinho is prepared to accept such a morbid fate, particularly with his team’s ever-improving away form.
‘We must be aggressive and disrupt them’
He told The News: ‘Southampton have had a solid start and probably been a bit unlucky in a couple of games, but are a side which have come down from the Premier League and, as you would expect, are very, very strong.
‘They've managed to strengthen in the summer with the money that has been spent and are a side which certainly will be one of the favourites to go back up considering the resources and everything at our disposal.
‘What we have to do is make sure we go there with the right mindset. We must make sure we are aggressive, that we make things as difficult as possible for a home side with a raucous atmosphere.
‘We must try to disrupt and then, off the back of that, try to play the way we know we can play. When we start playing and when we start to implement some of the things we’ve been good at, we’ve been a good side this season.
‘There are actually two sides to approaching this game. Number one is we make sure we approach it like any other game in terms of our preparation, in terms of the tactical input we put in every single week and don’t get too carried away with everything else.
Pompey have been better on the road this season, including a 1-1 draw at West Brom last month. Picture: Manjit Narotra/ProSportsImagesplaceholder image
Pompey have been better on the road this season, including a 1-1 draw at West Brom last month. Picture: Manjit Narotra/ProSportsImages | Manjit Narotra/ProSportsImages
‘The second side is making sure we acknowledge the importance of the game and acknowledge the impact it has on the city and everybody connected to the football club. That will definitely help us and hopefully inspire the way we go about our business.
‘For 90 per cent of our preparation, it will be normal. But there will be something slightly different as well because it’s a south-coast derby.’
Pompey head to Southampton with an unbeaten away record this term - having claimed just three wins on the road in all competitions last term.
A victory at Oxford United and draw with West Brom has given them four points from a possible six on their travels to date - now their next challenge is St Mary’s.
And Mousinho pinpoints the end of last season marking the start of a noticeable improvement in results away from Fratton Park.
Portsmouth boss: We now look a lot more solid
He added: ‘We’ve wanted to target that since the back end of last season and our away form did improve towards, which was really important in getting us over the line.
Read More
‘We had some frustrating results if you look at Coventry, Preston and Millwall, where we lost by the odd goal and couldn’t quite turn them into draws or wins.
‘Then, towards the back end of the season, we actually managed to turn the corner on that with some impressive away displays - and we really targeted that in the summer.
‘There were a lot of factors last year which meant we weren't a particularly good side away from home, which we’ve been looking to address, many of them without really being able to pinpoint what the problem was.
‘So far this season it has been a decent start away from home, we look a lot more solid and we’ve got to lean into that again on Sunday.’
Continue Reading