Portsmouth 2 v 0 Ipswich Town
EFL Championship
Tuesday, 14th April 2026 Kick-off 20:00

Mousinho: Probably Our Best Performance in My Time at Pompey
Tuesday, 14th Apr 2026 23:47

Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho hailed his side’s display as they beat the Blues 2-0 at Fratton Park as perhaps the best during his time at the club.

Goals just before half-time from Conor Shaughnessy and Colby Bishop saw Pompey to three vital points in their battle against the drop.

The Hampshire side are now up to 19th, three places and four points from the relegation zone.

“In the moment, it feels like probably the best performance we have put together in my time here,” Mousinho, who has been in charge at Fratton Park since January 2023, told the Portsmouth News.

“You look at all the circumstances, everything which has occurred this year, this week, the last six-to-eight weeks and the importance of the game was so big. So to show up like we did tonight, it does feel like that.

“There have obviously been some huge games we’ve had here but, with the pressure on as it was, I thought it was right up there.

“There’s a bit of recency bias to that, obviously. But we’ve felt the pressure severely as a club and as a team over the past few weeks and we’ve felt the need to bounce back after the QPR game [which they lost 6-1]. And to do it tonight off the back of Saturday [when they won 1-0 at Middlesbrough] was very special.”

Reflecting on their home form, which has been among the poorest in the division this season and even after tonight’s result is the 19th best, Mousinho added: “It has been frustrating because I do genuinely believe we have put in good performances here at home since the turn of the year.

“We’ve had the difference between West Brom and Sheffield United and putting the ball into the back of the net. We were caught on the counter against United and the same against Hull, they have been disappointing.

“Apart from Swansea [who beat them 2-1], every home performance has been good, but tonight was a bit different.

“We mixed it when we needed to, we had a side which wanted to play, which probably suited us to a certain extent, and we could press when we needed to press. The second half was a bit more about sitting and being very, very solid as a group.

“We showed different sides to our team that perhaps we haven’t had for the majority of the season.”

Photo: TWTD

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armchaircritic59 added 00:49 - Apr 15 Well John, from what I was watching, you'd got your team bang up for it, and with one or two key players missing. They responded for you in kind. We didn't. Deserved win and good luck in the battle to stay up.
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Dissboyitfc added 05:40 - Apr 15 Your best and our worst, a deserved victory!
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jas0999 added 07:38 - Apr 15 Well done to him. Miles better tactically than the over paid KM - far too good for him. Sadly, not the first this season.
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blues1 added 09:20 - Apr 15 Jas0999. As usual, ur spouting rubbish. Had nothing to do with tactics. Was simply down to players not performing at their best. Ur a typical town fan. On saturday, qe win, Mckennas a genius, now, we loss, hes tactically inept. Ridiculous.
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darkhorse28 added 09:27 - Apr 15

Jas0999, that’s not true, both good young managers, you’re as bad as the mob who say he’s Real Madrid level every time we win in the EFL.

He’s not elite. He’s probably about the third or fourth best manager in this division. And even that is blue tinted. Which is way off elite. But he’s young and developing and has had huge success for his brief time in charge, all that’s true.

He shouldn’t have used other clubs to leverage such a huge salary and investment, it did him no favours, created pressure he didn’t need at this stage of his career, and he was VERY badly advised, by himself or whoever. He should have taken a longer term view. The success comes AFTER you’ve proven you’re at the level, not before. He acted like many young players do when they have a good season and think they’re Pele.

If we go up though, that will all be hidden, the bad decisions forgotten, that’s football.

Ashton didn’t have to blink. I don’t blame McKenna for being self interested - not unusual in football.

I blame Ashton for blinking, for taking a huge risk, and for not being elite enough to spot and support Mckennas weaknesses and/or stand up to him and let him go to Brighton when they wouldn’t touch his requests with a barge poll…, a successful, elite, established club, saying NO was all the red flag you needed.

Ashton folding. Equally says everything about how NOT elite Ashton is. Poor decision. VERY poor.

Still might get a good outcome though, some bad decisions do.

They also instruct about longer term success, and as long as Ashton has the keys, we will be limited.

He’s good in the EFL. And that’s the start and end of his talents. We’re FIVE YEARS in - there’s a guy at Southampton five minutes in, and twice as good as we are, that’s what elite looks like, it’s not second to Plymouth, it’s not 22 points in a season, it’s not even one of the best EFL seasons we’ve ever had, it’s what Southampton did - take a risk, built around talent above anything we’ve had at our club in decades.

McKenna is very good. There’s no doubt. Very good doesn’t cut it when the competition is better. At the level above, significantly better, and even in this league, he doesn’t stand out.

Still every chance though - then he’ll be linked with Real Madrid again on the board, because 3 EFL promotions makes you world class (apparently).

He’s not world class. He’s not elite. But he’s not a bad coach. He needs a better structure and to be a coach. Ashton has had FIVE year here, and 31 years elsewhere to build that at a club - he’s never done it, not once, he doesn’t know what it looks like.

That’s instructive. That’s us long term, because we let him build the entire club around him, and those failings.

That’s important. McKenna isn’t the problem. Ashton. He is.

armchaircritic59 added 00:53 - Apr 16

darkhorse28, have to at least partially disagree with the very last sentence. It's pretty obvious KM has decided on a more pragmatic approach to this season in general, slower build ups, playing out from the back etc. The reason for this I believe is to prepare for going back into the PL, where that type of play for a promoted team is more likely to bear fruit then a gung ho approach.

Unfortunately he appears to have overlooked two absolute fundamentals.
1) We need to get there first
2) The style of play he's " enforced " on the players is pretty much a waste of time as If we do get back to the PL, many of the players will at the best be bit part players and some won't be here at all.

Time to get back to the first 45 minute style of play against Millwall. Concern ourselves with the PL if/when we actually get there!