Portsmouth boss responds to Stoke City 'dark arts' claim
Portsmouth manager John Mousinho is taking any suggestion of dark arts as a compliment after admitting to being too naïve in his own approach earlier in the season.
Mousinho saw his side pick up a sixth home win out of seven games as they beat Stoke 3-1 and leapfrogged the Potters in a congested Championship second-half.
Mark Robins suggested that Stoke’s inexperience had shown at times, such as how they handled an ‘old school’ striker’s performance from Colby Bishop, and admitted his team had been too easily bullied by Portsmouth.
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Mousinho told the Portsmouth News: “That’s a nice compliment. I didn’t particularly come off the game thinking it was all about the dark arts but I’ll take it as a massive compliment because at points this season we’ve thought we’ve been a bit naïve and the opposition have controlled games.
"The West Brom game here, for example, they’re good footballers but really well organised and clever in what they do. I looked at them with a bit of envy and it’s nice that we’ve progressed so that opposition managers saying the same about us.”
Both managers agreed, however, that Portsmouth’s energy levels had made sure they got the win.
Mousinho added: “I spoke to the lads at half-time and we had a few things we needed to go over and, it’s a cliché, but one of the things we needed was just energy. I thought the side that came out with more energy was going to win the game and we came out with it.
“It was a very simple goal and great from that respect. We’d gone long from a goal-kick or free-kick, won the first challenge – Colby was absolutely superb, gave the Stoke back four all sorts of issues – then we won a throw, forced them into a mistake to win the corner and those are the moments that make a huge difference in games.
“We’ve seen it when the boot has been on the other foot, like against Derby when we conceded a set piece to go two goals down, Bristol City the same. We have to be the side that defends a bit better and then puts the ball in the back of the net. It calms everyone down, gives us that cushion.
“The most pleasing thing was having that cushion, we didn’t take our foot off the gas. We were controlled, clinical and ruthless. We kept going on the press.
“When Stoke went more direct you have to come out and win the second ball and we did that really well. There were very few times in the second half when I thought we didn’t compete. There had been a couple of times in the first half when I thought we weren’t good enough in those moments and came out second best.”
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