‘We’re Close’: Pompey boss defends away form – after 15 defeats in 21 games
John Mousinho is adamant Pompey are ‘evidently close’ to finally resolving their away-day woes.
And, after 15 defeats in 21 matches on the road this season, he’s banking on a ‘couple of tweaks’ at Coventry on Wednesday night (8pm) paying dividends at last.
The Blues have captured just 10 points away from Fratton Park this season, with only Plymouth possessing a worse Championship record.
It’s an alarming contrast to home results, where Mousinho’s men boast the ninth-highest points tally in the division, including 10 wins from their last 14 south-coast fixtures.
Successive last-gasp defeats at Preston and Millwall have added to Pompey’s frustration, with their push towards safety overwhelmingly reliant on Fortress Fratton.
Now the Blues face seventh-placed Coventry, whose only two league defeats at home since November 6 have arrived against high-flying Leeds and Burnley.
Mousinho told The News: ‘We’re going to approach Coventry with a couple of tweaks, but aren’t going to be a million miles away from how we have approached recent away games.
‘I don’t think we are too far off and I don’t think our results away from home tell the full story, but that’s the reality of it, it is exactly that.
‘We can sit here and talk about a couple of games where we should have taken more points, a couple of positive performances, but, ultimately, we haven’t been good enough away from home, we haven’t picked up enough points.
‘However, take the West Brom game out of it – and I know it happened. We very deliberately changed the side around that day because we had a busy schedule and wanted to shuffle the pack.
‘Otherwise, since the turn of the year, we’ve been much more competitive, we have been in games, we’ve been much more competitive, we have caused lots of problems.
‘By the way, I qualify this by saying we know it’s not good enough to just be competitive in games, but we are much more competitive than before the new year, where too many matches we’d be blown away.
‘So, over the past weeks, if you look at the likes of Sheffield United, Luton, Preston and Millwall, we’re in all of those games and had a chance to take at least a point – and didn’t manage to do it.
‘It feels like we’re close, we are evidently close with seven or eight minus remaining in some of these fixtures, which isn’t good enough because football is played over 105 minutes most weekends because of the amount of extra time added-on.
‘We need to make sure we play well and consistently, then, after we score equalisers, like the last few weeks, we manage those situations to get points.
‘And when we are on top against Sheffield United and Preston, we must make sure we try to go a goal or two ahead because, inevitably, these sides are always going to be able to make changes. It’s a little shift in mentality we need to adopt as a group.’
One away win since October
In addition to 14 defeats in 20 league matches this season, the Blues also lost 2-0 at Wycombe in the third round of the FA Cup.
Meanwhile, they have won just once on their travels since October 19 – with a 2-0 triumph at Oxford United in February.
Currently four points above the relegation zone with six matches remaining, how they could desperately do with a helping hand at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Mousinho added: ‘Without giving too much away, we’ve slightly changed the approach since the new year in the way we press and, for the most part, that has meant we’ve been a lot more solid.
‘We have changed a couple of bits in terms of team selection. We were there again at Millwall with Terry (Devlin) as a 10. We have approached things slightly differently. We’re not formulaic.
‘You can be slightly more predictable at home, whereas away from home we have to slightly adjust to the opposition and make sure we come up with an effective plan to stop them from playing.
‘And when we are on top in games – and we have definitely been on top in some away games, 100 per cent – we must take advantage of that.
‘If we’re not playing particularly well away from home then dig in and make sure we don’t concede, don’t concede sloppy goals on the break, don’t concede set-pieces. If we combine those things then it will make us a better side on the road.’
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