Pompey boss John Mousinho's Blackpool preview, as Blues boss discusses the EFL League One trip to Bloomfield Road and all the Fratton talking points.
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00:00 John, obviously Blackpool away this weekend and it was a tough game wasn't it for Aton
00:05 Parker in this season. Wasn't quite a 4-0 though was it really?
00:09 No I think we deserved to lose the game, I thought Blackpool were better than us on the
00:14 day and yeah probably not quite a 4-0. We had a couple of really good chances early
00:19 on but then Blackpool took hold of the game and we went in 1-0 down at half time and to
00:23 be honest I think the game did change on the second goal and I thought it was a really
00:27 strange decision at the time when the lad who was clearly offside ended up poking the
00:31 ball in the back of the net from the shot and the referee and the linesman had no interest
00:35 in even looking at it. I know we spoke about it at the time but I thought that really changed
00:40 the game alongside the red card and to be honest no issue with the result, I thought
00:44 Blackpool were much better than us but yeah the game changed in a couple of small moments
00:48 but we know we've got a tough task ahead of us.
00:50 I mean Blackpool obviously looked excellent that day, they've not quite maintained that
00:53 this season have they?
00:54 I think they have in patches so maybe not throughout the entirety of the season but
00:59 certainly on their day they're an excellent side. I think Bolton went to Bloomfield Road
01:04 a couple of weeks ago and lost 4-1. Obviously Blackpool I think have then followed that
01:08 up, they'd be 1-0 away at the weekend and there's plenty of talent on the side with
01:12 a head coach that was extremely experienced at this level with taking Blackpool out of
01:17 Ligue 1 as well so a really, really decent outfit I think and lifted with players that
01:22 I think have played at this level and a level above so they've got plenty that are going
01:26 to make them a strong side.
01:27 Do you think on their day they can be a huge threat?
01:29 I think any side in the league can, there's no side this year that we've faced that we
01:34 don't think on their day they're a real threat and Blackpool are no exception, I think they're
01:38 a threat on their day, they've got some really good players so we've got to make sure we
01:41 prepare like we do for any game and do everything we possibly can to try and go and get a result.
01:46 What did you make of the result last night between Barnsley and Bolton?
01:49 I think it was one of those where it was difficult to properly sum up what the best result for
01:57 Portsmouth was so I think it was just a good one to watch, I thought it was a really good
02:01 game particularly towards the back end, it was very, very exciting the way the game finished
02:05 and I think without too much skin in the game I thought it was just a really good watch.
02:10 Whatever happened, there was one of those sides were going to pick up points, one of
02:13 the sides were going to drop points and it was one of those I think, it was much more
02:17 obvious I think last week when we were looking at results in terms of them coming in, a bit
02:21 less obvious last night and nothing we could affect so it was just one of those we just
02:24 ticked off and got on with it.
02:26 Obviously you picked Miles Perth-Harris ahead of Owen Moxon in midfield last week, what's
02:31 the situation for this game between the pair of them?
02:33 I think both competing for the same spots across the middle of the park, Marlon, Miles
02:39 and obviously Owen and it wasn't the case of Owen losing his place in the side or being
02:45 dropped, it was just the fact that we thought for that game it would suit Miles and we've
02:49 done that throughout the season with different positions and we definitely thought that was
02:53 the right thing to do in terms of the game against Oxford.
02:56 So we've looked at things this week in terms of how we think Blackpool will set up and
03:01 we haven't quite made a decision on team selection yet but certainly both of them and Marlon
03:05 have either of those two positions.
03:06 Was that selection influenced perhaps by Owen's yellow card situation?
03:11 It wasn't really, we were aware of it but it wasn't something that we thought we would
03:15 actually change the team too much because of that.
03:19 I thought if we 100% wanted to go with Owen at the weekend we would have played him.
03:23 We've just got good options at the moment and I think whoever we bring in to the side
03:28 they've got different strengths and obviously that was something that we saw would be beneficial
03:32 to the side at the weekend.
03:33 Have you seen enough from Miles in that position to consider him again then?
03:37 Yeah I think so, I think I said after the game we probably saw the best of Miles at
03:41 the weekend and then plenty of areas that he can improve upon.
03:46 When he puts his physicality and his technical ability on the game there's very few that
03:50 can really live with him and also on the flip side I think we've got plenty of work to do
03:53 which we've been doing this week so yeah definitely a position we can see Miles operate in.
03:57 There was a lot of love for Joe Rafty on Saturday, a lot of people's man of the match, I don't
04:01 know if you agree with that at all?
04:03 Well I think on the day he came up against Josh Murphy he was a winger in really, really
04:08 good form and certainly from my time having played with Josh I know that on his day I
04:13 think he's a Premier League winger, there's no doubt about that in my mind so I'm really
04:17 pleased with the way Joe Rafty went about his business.
04:18 I thought he was constantly at him, I thought he put a lot of pressure on Josh, I thought
04:22 he dealt with the physical battle really well and defended very, very well for a large period
04:27 of the game and also Joe does what he does as well which is give us a huge amount going
04:31 forward and a huge amount of energy so yeah really pleased with Joe's performance and
04:35 I thought that was close to his best at the weekend.
04:37 I mean both your regular fullbacks are unsung really aren't they because they're just so
04:41 reliable and solid aren't they?
04:44 Yeah very, very solid players and I think they give us a lot going forward as well but
04:48 certainly defensively which is the starting position I think for a fullback in terms of
04:52 what you want from them defensively they give us a lot and they're very reliable.
04:58 In terms of output as well I think Conor's had a freak season in terms of the injuries
05:03 that he's picked up because he started 44 league games for us last year which is just
05:07 normal for him but yeah two very, very steady players and they've got plenty to offer both
05:11 defensively and going forward as well.
05:13 Do you prefer that in fullbacks rather than just flying, bombing on?
05:16 I think it's good to have a bit of a mixture so when we looked at building the squad over
05:19 the summer we didn't want to have two fullbacks in the same position that would be carbon
05:25 copies of each other so I think we have really good balance across the four with Conor over
05:29 with Jack Sparks on the left and then Saxon Watson and Gerry Rafty on the right and I
05:33 think in both pairs we've got areas that we need to work on with all of those players
05:37 but the biggest positive for me is that all of those want to take on board everything
05:41 that we've tried to say to them, they do want to improve as players and that's a really
05:44 good spot to be in.
05:45 The current pair are effectively good defenders to begin with aren't they?
05:50 Yeah and I think that's probably certainly with Joe Rafty and his background that was
05:56 probably the primary focus as a fullback coming up through where we came from, particularly
06:02 with Rochdale and then obviously moving to Preston and to be fair Conor Overby coming
06:05 through the academy system may be one of those rare ones who came out of the academy system
06:09 as a really excellent defender and can play left back and play centre half and one of
06:13 the things you probably noticed particularly this season as well is we do want both of
06:17 them to get forward because I think they're both technically really good and we want them
06:20 to build from the back as well and help to do that and we trust them implicitly in doing
06:24 all of those things so certainly as a bedrock I think of their success, they're really good
06:29 defenders, really reliable defenders but certainly we've got a huge amount going forward as well.
06:32 Do you think your excellent defensive record, that's influenced by having two fullbacks
06:36 who are defenders effectively?
06:37 Yeah I think it's influenced by everything and the way that we want to press and the
06:41 way that we want to play as a whole but yeah certainly those two have had a huge impact.
06:45 Any injuries at all ahead of this game?
06:48 No, no injuries, we've got a clean bit of health from the weekend which is obviously
06:51 a positive and then Zac's on to return to full training today, modified session Monday,
06:55 modified session Tuesday but full training session today, he'll train with us fully again
06:59 Friday and most likely be available for selection at the weekend.
07:02 Is that injury on his to ease him slightly then?
07:04 It is although in terms of imminent returns, Zac's obviously the one that's come back,
07:10 I think if you look at post-Peterborough then hopefully we're going to have Tino,
07:16 Tom Lowry and Ben Stevenson training with us although with the long-term nature of their
07:20 injuries nothing imminent in terms of an actual return so yeah we've got to make sure we keep
07:26 it steady but certainly the injury room is clearing slightly but yeah I think every time
07:31 we've done that this season we've probably managed to go and add a couple more so we've
07:34 got to make sure that we stay alert on everything, stay positive with a strong squad and at the
07:40 minute I think we're the biggest plus I think in terms of the way that we've built the squad
07:44 and the way that we did in January is that even at the weekend we left Anthony Scully
07:48 and Gavin White and Dee Evans out of the squad, Lee's not quite ready but I think that shows
07:54 that we're in a really strong position.
07:55 Thank you.