'Most ridiculous thing' - Portsmouth boss issues firm warning ahead of facing old club Preston North End

Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho has fired a firm relegation warning to his players, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Preston North End.

The scrap for survival in the Championship has heated up immensely, in recent days. With nine matches left to play, seven points separates bottom club Plymouth Argyle and 18th placed Hull City. There were huge midweek wins picked up by teams and one of those was the Pilgrims’ 2-1 win at Portsmouth.

That result left Pompey in 17th spot on 42 points; home form has been key to the promoted side this season, with 32 of those points collected at Fratton Park. Mousinho’s men started the campaign poorly and then picked up, but he is insistent that the club cannot afford to get comfortable for one minute.

“I keep saying it and I can’t emphasise the point any more,” said Mousinho. “Derby have picked up six points in four days, Luton have won, Plymouth have won, Stoke have won, Hull have won. It’s the most ridiculous thing for us to get carried away with anything other than thinking we are in a scrap and have to do everything we possibly can to make sure we pick up enough points.

“I keep saying it, whenever we pick up a win we need that mentality as a football club to say: ‘Fine, we’ve got to go again and again and again’. Because very, very quickly you get dragged back into it. There are nine points available this week and there are going to be other periods this season when there’s so many points available in a short space of time.

“We have to be a lot better at dealing with that. Absolutely, that has been my message to the players, my message to the media... that is what I genuinely believe. There can’t be any more evidence than there has been this week where the bottom three sides have won, including Derby picking up six points. It’s very tight.”

A return to Deepdale for Mousinho

It’s a visit to a former club for the Pompey chief this weekend. Mousinho was signed for North End in 2012 by Graham Westley. He wore the armband at Preston and scored one goal in 32 appearances, with loan spells spent at Gillingham and Stevenage. He became Pompey boss in January 2023 - succeeding Danny Cowley.

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