John Mousinho praises Portsmouth character after beating 10-man Wigan
Posted Sunday, October 01, 2023 by PA
Boss John Mousinho refused to get too carried away despite Portsmouth extending their unbeaten run to 21 matches thanks to a 2-1 Sky Bet League One victory at 10-man Wigan.
The Latics took the lead through Martial Godo but two goals in the space of six minutes just before half-time from Regan Poole and Paddy Lane were enough to secure the win for Pompey.
Wigan had to play for 41 minutes with 10 men after Charlie Wyke was sent off for a lunge on Marlon Pack but they kept pushing to the end.
But Pompey kept them at arm’s length to cement their position at the top of the table.
“It’s not about the unbeaten run today, it’s just about the result,” said Mousinho. “I’m absolutely thrilled to come away to a place like this and win.
“They are a very decent, very decent side, and I thought they showed that in the first half.
“They’ve beaten some very good sides this year and I’m absolutely delighted with the result.
“They were a Championship side last season and have still got some fantastic players.
“You know you’re going to go behind in some games, not everything is going to go your way. It’s going to happen when you’re playing at this level against good sides.
“But the good thing about this group is how well they respond to adversity and that’s exactly how it was today.
“It’s always difficult when you go behind to a good side, in front of a bumper crowd here, but it felt like even though we went behind, there was no panic.
“I always felt we would get back into it and we managed to do that.”
Wigan boss Shaun Maloney refused to point the finger at referee Will Finnie, whose decision to red card Wyke led to a commotion in the technical area that saw Latics No 2 Graham Barrow yellow-carded along with Portsmouth counterpart Jon Harley.
“Look, it wasn’t a great tackle and it gives the referee a decision to make,” he said. “I can understand why the referee has made the decision.”
Wigan also had a hat-trick of penalty shouts turned down, with Maloney adding: “I haven’t seen the ones with Thelo (Aasgaard) and Charlie (Wyke) in the box, I’ve only seen the handball.
“Yeah, look, I think the referee has probably got that one wrong, in my opinion.
“But I don’t complain about referees too much, these things happen, you can’t change what’s happened.
“We knew it was going to be a big fight with 10 men and I thought we did that, even with 10 men, we continued to take the game to them.
“There’s ways to lose games…last weekend (after the 4-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers), I felt completely differently.
“We just have to improve how we defend the box because we made it far too easy for them to score – especially considering how good our goal was.
“But the effort the team gave, and the quality they tried to bring with 10 men, I feel very different this weekend to last weekend.”
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