Goals from Enis Destan, Kyle Joseph and Joe Gelhardt sealed a big victory for the Tigers
Barry Cooper Hull City correspondent
12:00, 09 Nov 2025Updated 12:43, 09 Nov 2025
John Mousinho saw his side beaten at Hull City
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John Mousinho saw his side beaten at Hull City(Image: Tony King/Getty Images)
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho says his players were aware of the threat posed by Hull City's ability to pick out the runs of Joe Gelhardt, but were unable to stop it.
Pompey were beaten 3-2 at the MKM Stadium on Saturday, having led early, and then fought back to level it at 2-2 before Charlie Hughes expertly picked out the run of Gelhardt, who finished brilliantly with 11 minutes of the 90 to go.
The result left the visitors 20th in the Championship, while City moved up to fifth with a fifth win in their last seven games and a fifth in their eight home outings so far.
"The performance for large parts was positive, particularly the way we started the game and we got ourselves ahead," Mousinho said at the MKM Stadium.
"Ultimately, we’ll look back and the three goals we conceded were really poor. The third goal, in particular, is the one we look at and think, 'Come on, we’ve got to do a lot better than that'. Particularly as we highlighted that is something which Hull do really well. That was the difference in the game.
"There are always going to be different problems you face from game to game. I just thought some players who played particularly well the other night and hadn’t given their forward any change whatsoever, were a bit more generous.
"For the third goal, we’re in decent-enough shape and lose the runner, that is something we just can’t do, it’s impossible to sustain any level of performance doing that.
"The second goal is a set-piece where we are happy with the set-up and then lose the header at the back post. The first goal is difficult to properly remember now, but I still think when the ball is wide, we have numbers, and we don’t track runners well enough. It is a collective responsibility. Naturally, you look back and go, we have to defend better, which we do, but it's on both sides.
"In the second half, we didn’t have a huge amount of pressure on the ball, but I don’t think we looked like we were exposed particularly, and the goal (Gelhardt) changed the game.
"You feel like we need to not concede those three goals, which is absolutely fair, but also in the second half, in particular, you look at the amount of time we had the ball on the turnover and weren't positive enough or didn’t take care of the ball or came backwards on ourselves. Ultimately, we invited pressure because of the way we also handled the ball going forward."
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