John Mousinho: post Barnsley and pre-Wigan game

The News, Portsmouth

John Mousinho chats to The News in the aftermath of Pompey's promotion party and with one eye on Wigan this weekend

Transcript

00:00 So John, the day after, the great night, how did you celebrate it last night?

00:06 You finished giving all your interviews.

00:07 Yeah, after all the interviews we went into the office and the staff were there with families,

00:13 Andy Cullen came down, Tony Bryan came down and we had everybody in there and we stayed

00:17 there until about 2 o'clock in the morning and then I went back to mine, still going

00:21 through the streets of South Sea, I could still hear everything going on so I decided

00:24 the best place to be was in my kitchen, with another beer in hand but it was a very special

00:31 night and one that will live long in the memory.

00:33 A bit more low key than O'Neill's and Albert Road then?

00:35 I think so, yeah, I think so, certainly for me that was the plan, just to make sure I

00:40 would keep myself away from the crowds and we've obviously got the End of Season Awards

00:45 tonight to celebrate and another 10 days worth of the season to go which I think is a brilliant

00:50 place to be.

00:51 Was it nice spending it with your coach and stuff because you're a very close group aren't

00:54 you as well?

00:55 Yeah, I mean we spent it with the coaching staff, we spent it with the interns who are

00:58 in there, the guys that come in and make a difference, not being paid a penny all season,

01:03 obviously doing it with Rich, Andy and Tony was special and the families as well so to

01:06 get everyone's families down there, partners, wives and a couple of my friends as well who

01:12 have been there for a long time in terms of the support in my football career was really

01:16 special.

01:17 I think everybody was probably a bit more emotional than me last night, it's one of

01:20 those things where everybody is so wrapped up in it and all of a sudden we've got however

01:25 many extra Portsmouth fans now taking on board, in terms of my mates and my family at least,

01:31 it's one of those things that it's really, really nice to celebrate with them.

01:34 I'm assuming a lot of people have texted you as well and got in touch?

01:38 Yeah, my phone's been going off the hook, I haven't had a chance to get back to everyone

01:41 yet so it's been one of those nights where I've picked my phone up and there's just hundreds

01:47 of messages coming through and people are genuinely obviously delighted for everyone

01:51 at the football club, delighted for Portsmouth.

01:52 I think everybody's got that, maybe this is a bit too much but quite a few people in the

01:56 country like the football club and I think they're pleased to see us back in the Championship

02:02 and yeah it's been one of those nights where it's been a great, well not quite 24 hours

02:07 but it's been a great 20 odd hours.

02:09 I'm assuming people in football have sent you messages as well?

02:11 Yeah, so former head coaches, former managers, I got a really nice message off Danny Cowley

02:18 which I think is one of the class that the guy's got to be honest and really good result

02:24 for him last night.

02:25 I got a message off Nigel Clough who'd taken the time to message me, having been promoted

02:30 himself so I think it just shows the class of a lot of these people and amongst many

02:35 others I think it's plenty of people in football who have been on the phone and it's really

02:40 nice to hear from them.

02:41 Do you have messages from people in the same division in League One as well?

02:44 I think I have, yeah.

02:45 You've got to check them.

02:46 I've definitely got to go through the messages, I've got about 200 on there Neil to go through

02:52 so there won't be many missing, it is something I feel very, very humbled and very privileged

02:59 to be able to say that these people have been in touch.

03:03 Mission accomplished with two games to go, how would you approach this final two games?

03:07 I think the most important thing is that we savour the end of season awards tonight.

03:14 We had obviously exactly the same this time last year and it was great, Colby absolutely

03:19 swept the board here and he was probably one of the, not one of the only shining lights

03:23 but he was the main positive of an otherwise mediocre season where I thought we were the

03:27 best team in the league and we finished eighth and we weren't good enough to be in the top

03:30 six and compete with the bigger side so I'm just saying that to make sure that the lads

03:34 do I suppose savour the achievement of this season and I think they should and savour

03:39 it with a lot of the people who have been there and supported us throughout that as

03:43 well and then I think we've got to get back on it tomorrow.

03:46 The players just rest and probably get their minds away from football for a day but as

03:52 a coaching staff we need to start preparing for Wigan, usually we'd have been straight

03:56 back on it today so we've taken an extra day off so prepare for Wigan.

04:00 We'll have a normal training session on Friday so a normal training session on Friday, try

04:03 and get as best physically and mentally prepared as we can for the game because Wigan are a

04:08 really decent side and we've got to make sure that we try and finish the season on a high

04:13 especially at home at Fratton Park.

04:15 We touched upon it briefly last night when we spoke but are you sure your target is now

04:19 that 100 points?

04:20 I think so, the first target over the past couple of weeks has been promotion, the next

04:24 target and I obviously when it was a possibility we wanted to try and achieve it but I always

04:30 thought okay get promoted then we'll talk about what it takes to win a league, we managed

04:33 to do both of those last night and I do think it is a nice thing to be able to finish on

04:37 100 points if we possibly can.

04:38 It's going to be a difficult task because of the fact we've got Wigan and Lincoln and

04:41 particularly with Lincoln fighting for a playoff position as well so it's going to be straightforward

04:49 but I think the side is more than capable of it and I think we should definitely aim

04:52 for that.

04:53 Is it going to be difficult though because the players mentally have accomplished their

04:55 goal, can you keep them going to get those extra points?

04:59 I actually think it should help the fact that we've got that goal or we've at least got

05:04 that potential achievement.

05:05 I think in a strange way if we were on 92 points maybe it's a bit more difficult to

05:10 motivate the boys but being on 94 with 6 to play for I think it's a very special thing

05:15 to be able to do.

05:16 I was always thinking over the past couple of weeks about what it would be like if we

05:21 got promoted and what my message to the boys would be and that was there is a difference

05:26 between being promoted and being promoted as champions.

05:29 Just in terms of something you can savour in your career and to be able to say you were

05:33 champions of a league I do think that's a special thing.

05:36 Now I think it's about making that step from being champions to possibly saying you've

05:40 won 100 points in the league.

05:41 If we manage to do it brilliant then if not it's obviously not going to take away from

05:45 anything we've achieved this year but I think that's the main motivator and that's what

05:47 we'll really pull on over the next week.

05:49 The players have Thursdays off normally, they've got Thursday off as well this week.

05:52 Yeah so we normally obviously would have been in today, we'd have done the post-match and

05:55 we would have trained today, we were penciled in to do that.

05:57 I've obviously given the lads the day off today and they're reporting straight to Fratton

06:01 tonight so they'll have the awards dinner tonight, day off tomorrow and then back in

06:07 as normal on Friday, ready for the game Saturday.

06:09 And because you're at home and there's no travelling which is good as well isn't it?

06:12 No travelling which is great, we had the long long trip up to Bolton there and back and

06:16 I think that took a lot out of the boys so it's pretty good that we don't have to get

06:19 on the bus and I think it's great that we get to celebrate straight away with the fans

06:23 on Saturday.

06:24 And how are you approach team selection as well?

06:26 I don't know yet, I really don't know.

06:28 I think one of the big positives we've got at the moment is yesterday we had 24 fit pros

06:32 to select from and I think that probably showed as well in the way that the game went in terms

06:37 of being able to make those five substitutions so bringing Colby, Paddy, Callum Lang, Christian

06:42 Sadie and Joe Rafty off the bench.

06:44 Those are five that would start in most of the sides and have started most of their time

06:49 in the league this year so that's something we'll have a look at over the next couple

06:53 of days.

06:54 I haven't properly checked with Steve on the injury news, I think Zacks Watson will be

06:57 out, I think Tino maybe will protect.

06:59 Tino was fine but his output was really high so we just wanted to protect him and that's

07:03 why he came up at half time because I thought he was actually excellent in the first half.

07:06 So those are maybe the two that we'll look at, protect him and then go from there.

07:11 What is Zacks' injury?

07:12 He's just felt his groin so I think he felt it quite early on, it's that issue that he's

07:16 had previously, we do really need to get on top of it and so at this stage of the season

07:21 we'll manage it, we'll make sure that Zacks fits and hopefully ready to go for the Lincoln

07:26 game if possible but if not then we just need to get on top of that one now but I haven't

07:29 had the full debrief yet so we'll see.

07:32 Any more practice injuries at all?

07:33 No nothing else, just Tino to keep an eye on but there's nothing else that I know of

07:40 and the physical effort from the boys I thought was incredible over the last two games.

07:44 You look at a player like Abu who at times looked dead on his feet but just kept coming

07:50 back and kept coming back and he kept giving us that spark in the second half and that's

07:53 why we kept him on so yeah really, really good.

07:56 We're really pleased obviously with the way that the boys finished the game, still looking

08:00 fit and strong after the season they've had.

08:01 A few might have sore heads though.

08:03 I expect so yeah, I expect they will and yes it's one of those things I'm not going to

08:08 ever tell the boys not to celebrate, I'm actually hoping the message is the opposite, these

08:13 moments in your career, they don't come around every day so you've got to make sure that

08:16 you do enjoy them, you do celebrate them and I'm sure there'll be a couple more celebrations

08:22 tonight, I think they'll be a bit more low-key and then yeah move on to Saturday and we've

08:26 got a full week of making sure that the lads can enjoy it and really savour what the whole

08:31 club has achieved.

08:32 Thank you.

08:33 (slurping)

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