Portsmouth boss John Mousinho blasts his players after embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Derby

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho blasts his players after they suffered an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Derby County on Friday night.

The Rams moved seven points above the Championship bottom three with a thumping victory and had been 3-0 up inside half an hour through Kane Wilson, Eiran Cashin and Ebou Adams, before Marlon Pack’s own goal made it four.

Going into this game, Derby had just won just one of their previous 11 games and none of their previous six while also taking nine points from a possible 33 in the 11 games since mid-October.

Derby climb up to 14th in the table, seven points clear of the drop zone, while Pompey are only out of the bottom three by virtue of having scored more goals than Cardiff.

Derby’s Paul Warne to Sky Sports:

“It’s nice to win and score and take our chances. I don’t think we played as well as in previous home games but when you’re clinical you give yourself a chance to win. And we defended well. Three games in seven days has taken its toll on us so everyone can get a deserved rest.

“I’ve been proud of how we’ve played in every game. We’ve been at the rough end of a bit of class from the opposition. I don’t think we were too much better than Portsmouth. But we took our chances early on and the game looked more comfortable because of the scoreline.

“We played well in our home games but Leeds away and Burnley away – when I saw that I thought that would be a long week of no sleep! You need to win home games and there are certain home games when there is more pressure on the lads to win.

“As much as we want to compete, we’re not there. It may take a couple of windows. My job is to get the best out of our group to get as much as we possibly can. As a performance leader, I’m really pleased and tonight the football gods were kind to us.”

Warne told BBC Radio Derby:

“I’m really pleased, there were some good performances within it. I didn’t think we had as much control as the scoreline suggested in the first half.

“I don’t think we played better tonight than we have in any other home game, it’s just that goals change games and fortunately tonight we were on the right side of those chances.

“The lads are really confident, and I can say that because I’m with them all the time.

“They are not, not confident – they know they are a good team. We have been excellent at home, and we have been competitive away from home.

“In the last three games [at Leeds and Burnley before the Portsmouth game] I’ve been proud of each performance, but obviously this one gets headlines because we have won.”

Pompey boss John Mousinho told The News: ‘It wasn’t very good to say the least, we got exactly what we deserved and maybe got off slightly lightly.

‘The start was really poor, we didn’t start on the front foot, we invited too much pressure. There was a chance early on just to let the ball run through to the goalkeeper, which we didn’t do, and off the back of that Derby had a couple of chances, a couple of corners, a couple of free-kicks.

‘We started settling into the game when it was 1-0 down, but then conceded from a set-piece. It was a strange first half because it didn’t feel like wave after wave of attack from Derby, but it did feel like every time they ran forward they scored.

‘The second half was the reverse, wave after wave of attack but Derby didn’t score quite as many and we didn’t have any control of the game or any meaningful possession whatsoever.

‘The most disappointing thing is we seemed to get everything wrong. That was tactically as staff.

‘But you can always mask that if you are brave and you win your individual battles, win second balls, defend corners properly, defend your box properly – and we just didn’t do any of that.

‘That’s not just the back four, that’s the entire XI, in terms of the way we let them get out on too many occasions far too easily.

‘Josh ends up a yard off Kane Wilson and you end up making up that extra yard at the back end. If Josh was 80 yards away from him, fine, but he got back in.

‘It’s not just Josh, it was everybody, we were a yard off everything and that summed up our performance.

‘We couldn’t quite get to anything in terms of the challenges, headers, any of the duels.’

 Mousinho to Sky Sports:

“We didn’t start particularly well which invited a bit of pressure away from home. On a Friday night at Pride Park, that’s something you can never afford to do.

“We gave Derby a leg up and a bit of a boost early on and we never really recovered from that. The first half was a strange one: I didn’t think it was a disaster but at the same time every time Derby went forward they looked like scoring. When they got the fourth, it was game over and a write-off.

“At 3-0, we felt a goal might change it but we didn’t create enough and we only created half chances. They were much better than us in one game.

“I felt confident going into the game, the players have been in really good shape and we’ve had some excellent results recently at home and away from home. The nature of it, the manner of it and the way we went under was surprising. I think that’s the most disappointing thing, I can’t really remember us winning an individual battle or second balls.

“We didn’t do enough all over the pitch and we didn’t win enough tonight – and when you do that you get a result like this.”

Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent:

“It all went wrong from the start really. Coming here was always going to be difficult on a Friday night, but we invited pressure with a couple of really poor decisions early on.

“It was a really strange first half, there wasn’t a huge amount in it but every time Derby went forward they looked like scoring.

“We actually settled into the game okay after we went a goal down, but the second from a set-piece is really disappointing – I think we could do better from every phase of it.

“And after that, when it’s 3-0, we huffed and puffed in the second half and had a couple of very minor chances, and once we didn’t convert one of those we don’t get back into the game at all.

“I always thought there was a chance at 3-0 to get a goal to get back into the game, but at 4-0 it could have been more after that.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Portsmouth boss John Mousinho blasts his players after the embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Derby…

@Chrissyh2711: Have to say fair play to the Pompey fans tonight, good singing and banter, credit to your club, safe trip home 🤝🏻

@Roydini25: I don’t think I’ve ever watched a worse pompey performance than this one

@FairallDavid: Gifted them the win, there… Awful all round. Wish we’d drop the high press when it’s clearly not working in some games and/or the players are leggy. Try something different at least when that happens and either turn it round or keep the scoreline down. 💙

@PompeyHazza9: Desperately need some more championship quality for the first team and for the bench

@pdh_pdh: That puts it to bed why kamara never gets minutes. Wow, he is embarrassingly bad! And this must be the worst defence I have ever seen. Probably the slowest team also. We are not even a league one play off squad…

@jaymuldoon6: Why am I seeing coaching staff for us smiling and laughing? Should be absolutely fuming with that

@s_Grinyer: Tom McIntyre can never play for this football club again

@JamesIngle: That was a genuine disgrace of a performance. Zero creativity is one thing but lack of effort and a ridiculously low second ball win %, is another. Not good enough.

@swannybegood: Totally unprofessional performance. Poole’s hamstring needs to mend and quick. Money on defenders please and a proven champ player for centre mid.

@samuelfarrugia: Genuinely believe that defence partnership would struggle in league 2, team finally started to look like they gel and then play like that. Horrendous

@HazzaTWood96: We’ve had a really disappointing night away at Derby, the defense was all over the place and very little going forward as well, but 4/9 from the last three games is a decent enough return, PUP. 🔹🔷🔵💙 #Pompey

@Shrewd_Berry: Crap. Dross. Shambolic. But not consistent with our overall championship performance levels. This has to be put to bed and we need to get back to what we have seen the past month. Huge period coming up on and off the pitch. Believe. PUP 💙

@Danny_PFC_Hampe: Made Stoke, Cardiff and Derby look like prime Barcelona 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

@clarky867630: That was embarrassing way out our depth men against boys got a manager that has bought in kids on the cheap owners that are detached from the football club .derby have bought in proper footballers we got battered 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

@fletcherg003: Dreadful! No spine, no talent, no creativity: we need investment in experience and class!

@joerobbs: Utter utter embarrassment. Shame on every single one of them. Never want to see Macintyre in a Pompey shirt again. Our midfield is so lightweight and ineffective. Seriously worrying. Maybe the good performances were the anomaly.

@_PortsmouthArg: Our changes to try something are Saydee and Kamara who are terrible 😆 Urgent hierarchy reinforcements.