Portsmouth

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho says his side put in a "really strong performance" in the 3-1 win over Charlton at The Valley on Tuesday night.

"Delighted with the result and we matched it with a really good performance," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"Take the opening minute or so out of it when Nico saved us - it's easy to forget that when you come away with an important away victory, you look at that and it was just a moment of us being lax defensively but then I think that maybe sharpened us up a bit.

"After that, I thought for 55 minutes we were excellent, fully deserved the lead, came out in the second half and Charlton make three changes, you might expect a different game.

"But we came out, fully deserved to get the third goal and it went a bit crazy after that.

"We made a few very strange decisions after that which we hadn't made but the fact we saw the game out in difficult circumstances is really pleasing."

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho wants to see a fast start from his side when they travel to Charlton on Tuesday (19:45 GMT), after bemoaning a lack of goals in recent games.

"Unfortunately, over the past couple of weeks I think we've controlled games, we've also created chances but we haven't put the ball in the back of the net," he told BBC Radio Solent.

"We've just got to add the goals at the top end of the pitch. Everything underpinning the performance [against Sheffield United] was good but we didn't put the ball in the back of the net at the crucial times."

Pompey are yet to score in February after back-to-back 1-0 defeats by the Blades and Preston North End, and have only scored more than one goal once in 2026, in the 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

Mousinho's side travel to Charlton in the rearranged fixture that was abandoned in December when a Charlton fan had a medical emergency in the stands during the game and later died in hospital.

"A strong start is important. It's important away from home on a Tuesday night when Charlton haven't had a game at the weekend to maybe just try to dampen everything down and make sure that we control the game," Mousinho said.

The Charlton game marks the start of a run of three away games in eight days for Pompey as they also travel to Millwall and Wrexham in the Championship.

"We've got three away games in a very short space of time. [It's] really unfortunate considering the [Charlton] game was called off before Christmas and that's really added pressure on the fixtures this week. We have to make sure we try to do our best to deal with those three consecutive away games," Mousinho said.

"[There's] plenty of points to play for, we just have to try to pick up as many points as we can. That's the priority."

Portsmouth are looking to do the league double over Charlton after their 2-1 win at Fratton Park over Christmas, something that hasn't happened since the 1985-86 season.

"They're a very solid side as you'd expect a Nathan Jones side to be," added Mousinho.

"They create a lot of problems with the way that they play with the physicality they have on display, they're really effective, particularly at home recently."

Listen to the full interview with John Mousinho and more Pompey content on BBC Sounds.

Portsmouth's Terry Devlin has said interest from other clubs during the winter transfer window could act as a confidence boost.

The Northern Ireland international, 22, was linked with a move away from the club this season, prompting boss John Mousinho to announce the defender was not for sale.

And with Pompey finding themselves in the midst of a relegation battle, Devlin has insisted that his mind is solely on his current club.

"It shows that I'm doing something right so hopefully it should give me a bit of confidence," Devlin told BBC Radio Solent.

"My only focus is on Portsmouth right now and finishing the season strong."

Portsmouth are currently in 21st place in the Championship table, just one point above Leicester City but with two games in hand.

One of those is on Tuesday (19:45 GMT) when Pompey make the trip to Charlton Athletic, who have taken seven points across their past three games to put them six points ahead of their visitors.

Devlin added: "It's even bigger now [the Charlton game] after losing [to Sheffield United].

"We need to go there and get a good result and bring them closer to us."

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Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has revealed his side have been dealt a further injury blow with Adrian Segecic and Andre Dozzell both set to miss their game against Charlton Athletic on Tuesday.

The Blues have struggled with injuries across this campaign and last week received bad news about January signing Aji Alese, who suffered a season-ending groin tear in their recent defeat to Preston North End.

And Dozzell was forced off in the first 10 minutes of their defeat by Sheffield United on Saturday.

"Andre's turned his ankle so we're going to have a scan later on this week but yeah there's no chance he will play on Tuesday," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"We'll just wait and see what the scan says, he has I think started every single game that we've had this year apart from the one where he was suspended.

"Naturally when you have a player that important to you, it's a tough one to take.

"Segecic is OK but he'll miss the game Tuesday because of a dead leg that he's picked up, but he's ok and should be back for Saturday - it's a bit more promising there."

Portsmouth are currently 21st in the Championship table, one point above the bottom three, but with two games in hand on the teams around them.

Tom Chappell
Portsmouth fan writer from Fournilwrittenalloverit

Image source, Rex Features

Being the better side in a game you go onto lose is a bad trait to have and sadly that's exactly what happened to Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon.

A point against Sheffield United would've felt like an unjust outcome, let alone suffering defeat in the 90th minute against opposition who created very little all game - it took me a while to come to terms with the fashion in which we lost.

But their inability to convert at the other end and make their opportunities count means Pompey only have themselves to blame for Saturday's sickener.

We will know in May, and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the decision not to recruit any out and out number 9 competition in January looks more peculiar as the games go on.

I, like the majority inside Fratton Park, was infuriated at some of referee's decisions, particularly the denial of a goal for a foul only he seemed to spot, but this didn't affect the full-time result whatsoever.

The result fitted an alarming pattern of failure to put games to bed and paying the price for not doing so.

Pompey have a massive week of away days ahead of us in which at least one of the games has to be one we win.

Both on Saturday afternoon and against Preston the week before, we've been comfortable, looked dominant, but lacked quality.

As a result of that, one lapse in concentration lost us both games.

That's 30 games played, 16 to go and three of the nine away fall within the next week to 10 days.

It's about to get busy and Pompey need points fast.

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Charlton Athletic host Portsmouth in a crucial match-up at the bottom end of the table on Tuesday (19:45 GMT) after the original game had to be abandoned earlier in the season.

The Addicks will aim to build on their impressive 1-0 win over Stoke City last time out as Nathan Jones' side tries to continue to trend upwards.

Pompey hope to bounce back after 1-0 defeats by Sheffield United and Preston North End. A win over Charlton would take them to 19th and four points clear of the relegation zone with a game in hand.

• Having won six of their eight home Football League games against Portsmouth between March 1995 and April 2006 (D2), Charlton Athletic have since won just two of their last seven against them at the Valley (D2 L3).

• Following their 2-1 win in December, Portsmouth are looking to complete the league double over Charlton for the first time since 1985-86.

• Charlton have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three league games. They last had a longer run without conceding in October 2020 (six games), while in the Championship their last longer run was November 2013 (four games).

• Portsmouth have won just two of their 14 Championship away games this season (D5 L7), with both of those being 1-0 wins against the current bottom two sides (Oxford in August, Sheffield Wednesday in January).

• Charlton's Matty Godden has scored in all five of his Football League appearances against Portsmouth, though he hasn't faced them since February 2020 while at Coventry.

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Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator

Image source, Rex Features

For the second game in a row, Portsmouth put in a creditable performance but got nothing for it.

In the first half they were much the better side but couldn't take advantage of a plethora of chances. A draw would have been an okay result, but that was thrown away by conceding a poor late goal.

This Pompey side is comfortably better than the one that ended 2025, but the lack of goals remains a big issue.

It feels like a week can't go by without further Pompey injuries. Conor Chaplin could miss the next four matches, although John Swift deputised with possibly his best showing of the season.

Aji Alese was always a risk to sign, given his injury record. A torn quad means it's a risk that has failed to pay off.

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho spoke to BBC Radio Solent after Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Sheffield United.

"Any loss is difficult to take, but the nature of the goal conceded and the way the game panned out makes it really difficult," he said.

"The games where you come away and know you are not the better side, there are concerns when that happens and you can think 'we weren't at it today or not good enough'. But I thought we were the better side today and should have won the game.

"The opportunities that were created and some of chances we carved out were excellent, but we didn't show enough composure and ruthlessness in those moments."

"For a very dominant first-half display, we didn't come in with a goal. That's fine it happens, but it was about building on that in the second half and we probably didn't do that until the last 25 minutes when we settled into the game again and had a few opportunities.

"But ultimately we got caught in the end."

Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator

Image source, Shutterstock

There are times when managers speak and you need to read between the lines and interpret a subtle message.

But this was not the case when John Mousinho spoke about Harvey Blair this week.

He said: "If all goes well with Harvey then we'll probably be looking at the Millwall game [21 February] but there's no point again in us registering Harvey [this week] because he's broken down so many times."

Pompey opted to leave three spaces in their 25-man EFL squad to give flexibility.

Josh Knight was left out but he won't return until April at the earliest, Florian Bianchini is also injured and would likely have returned to Swansea in January if Pompey had the option to end his loan.

Blair on the other hand is potentially 10 days away from featuring. Certainly sooner than Conor Shaughnessy and Josh Murphy who were both named in the 25-man squad.

It feels like a vital few months for 22-year-old Blair's Portsmouth career. He clearly has the physical attributes and the technical qualities required to succeed in the Championship. He was worth a gamble at £300,000 from Liverpool 18 months ago. But he now needs to get - and stay - fit.

He's made just 19 league appearances since joining the Blues in August 2024.

Injuries have been the bane of Pompey's life again this season but Blair is a likeable individual who can count Mo Salah among his friends. He clearly has a point to prove to Mousinho but he needs to be available for selection in order to do so.

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Portsmouth will seek to put ground between themselves and the Championship drop-zone when Sheffield United visit on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

Pompey start the day two places and one point above the relegation zone, although they have two games in hand on third-bottom Blackburn.

Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Preston ended a four-match unbeaten streak but the Blues are unbeaten and have taken 11 points from their past five games at Fratton Park.

The Blades are six points better off in 17th but know a win could take them within five points of the play-off spots.

They have however taken just one point, and scored one goal, across their past three games away from Bramall Lane.

• Portsmouth have lost just one of their past 11 home league games against Sheffield United (W6 D4), going down 2-1 in January 2003 under Harry Redknapp.

• Following their 3-0 win in November, Sheffield United are looking to complete the league double over Portsmouth for the first time since 1995/96.

• Portsmouth have alternated between a win (3) and a draw (2) in their past five home league games, beating West Bromwich Albion 3-0 last time out.

• Sheffield United won four of their first seven Championship away games following Chris Wilder's return last September (L3). However, they have only won one of the past six on the road in the league (D1 L4).

• Adrian Segecic has netted six goals in the Championship this season, twice as many as any other Portsmouth player (Yang Min-Hyeok and Terry Devlin on 3).

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho said he could not believe his team did not score - and that they were not awarded a penalty - as they lost at Preston.

Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent: "If you look at the balance of the game and how good we were for 90 minutes, we are scratching our heads as to why we didn't put one of those chances in the back of the net.

"We looked more dangerous as the game went on from set-pieces but there were four that went directly out for goal-kicks. It's a difficult surface so I understand that, but still expect us to do a lot better. Once we started delivering the ball into good areas we looked threatening.

On the penalty incident, when Jordan Storey appeared to bring down Adrian Segecic, he said: "It's either a corner or a penalty, it's not a goal kick. I'm completely baffled by that decision. It was a stonewall penalty."

Mousinho added that he was happy with new signing Jacob Brown's debut: "He led the line well. It's new territory for Jacob in terms of coming in and slotting into the system and seeing what we want from him. He was always going to tire around 60 minutes so that was the plan to bring him off."

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Portsmouth boss John Mousinho says that Saturday's game at Preston North End will be a "tough test" for his side.

The Blues won the reverse fixture 1-0 back in August, but since then the Lilywhites have pushed on, currently ninth in the Championship table and three points off the top six.

Paul Heckingbottom's side come into this match with no wins in their last four games but drew 1-1 at Ipswich Town last time out.

"Preston have had an outstanding season, competing up in the top six and the top eight for large parts of it," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"They have been very consistent in terms of their output and have picked up some very good results, least of all last week against Ipswich away from home.

"They have a very distinct playing style, excellent structure and some really good players.

"When they came here to Fratton Park it was a real tough test but a good win for us ultimately and it's going to be a really tough test for us going into this game."

The Blues could end up facing a familar face in Callum Lang who they sold to Preston on the final day of the transfer window.

Lang has been recovering from an injury but could face his former side who he made over 50 appearances for.

"I think it always is (strange) whenever you face former players, particularly after such a short turnaround," Mousinho added.

"It's just one of those things that we'd have to deal with."

Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator

Image source, Shutterstock

If you buy into the theatre of transfer deadline day, Portsmouth were the club for you this January.

There were late signings, an acrimonious 'will he, won't he?' saga and some frantic googling of players you hadn't heard of.

Lots of excitement, but is it a good outcome for the Blues?

The flippant response is always that we'll know in a few months, but we already know the signs are encouraging from the early business. Midfielder Ebou Adams has made a stunning impact and has been exactly the kind of player Pompey needed in midfield. Millenic Alli has also made an encouraging start and Keshi Anderson looks a useful addition.

Those three all know about the Championship, as does Jacob Brown. The same cannot be said for Gustavo Cabellero and Madiodio Dia. Dia is a centre-back for the future, Cabellero a winger for the here and now. It will be fascinating to see how they get on. Nico Schmid has been a brilliant addition but other recent overseas signings have found life tough in the Championship.

This window could have looked different. Richard Hughes said Portsmouth believed they met the valuation on three signings that did not happen.

Svante Ingelsson is understood to have been reluctant to make the transfer from Sheffield Wednesday for personal reasons. While it's believed the original valuation was met for Dundee defender Luke Graham and an unnamed EFL striker, only for the clubs to then ask for more money. You have to have a walkaway point in any negotiation.

January can be difficult, and difficult is a fair description of Callum Lang's drawn-out move to Preston North End.

When asked about Lang this week John Mousinho was fairly short in his words. It wasn't quite a 10-word departure statement that you sometimes see, but it hints at an acrimonious transfer which has left some wounds to heal.

Pompey's owners stuck firm on their valuation and there was a real chance of Lang having to head back down the M6 with his tail between his legs, had Preston not finally reached the asking price.

A sale in excess of £2m with further add-ons to potentially come feels decent business.

Lang was brilliant for Pompey in his first year at the club, but has made just 11 appearances since first injuring his hamstring in the middle of February last year.

The league table looks a lot better for Portsmouth than it did a month ago and the squad is clearly stronger.

If they can maintain their current performance levels and finally get a bit of good fortune with injuries, they should be able to secure their Championship status for another year.

Preston North End could include their record signing Callum Lang in their squad just five days after the forward left their opponents on Saturday, Portsmouth.

The Lilywhites have slipped three points outside the play-offs after a four-game winless run.

Pompey are four games unbeaten but only one point clear of the relegation zone.

• Preston are unbeaten in their past 11 home league games against Portsmouth (W7 D4) since a 5-0 loss in February 1973.

• Following their 1-0 win in August, Portsmouth are looking to complete the league double over Preston for the first time since 1969-70.

• Preston have lost their past two home league games (1-0 v Derby, 3-0 v Hull). They last lost three in a row in the same season in December 2023, while they last did so without scoring in October 2020 (4).

• Portsmouth have lost just one of their past nine league games (W4 D4), and are looking to win consecutive matches for the first time since April 2025.

• Only bottom side Sheffield Wednesday (1) have won fewer away games in the Championship this season than Portsmouth (2).

Portsmouth did not have to sell forward Callum Lang in the January transfer window, according to boss John Mousinho.

Preston North End signed the 27-year-old for a club record undisclosed fee on deadline day but Mousinho says Lang's sale was not out of necessity in order to balance the books.

The move means Liverpool-born Lang returns to the north west having signed for Pompey from Wigan Athletic in January 2024.

"We took everything into consideration - first of all the valuation was met late on and Callum made it clear he wanted to leave as well," the head coach told BBC Radio Solent.

"We stick by what we said and the football club not needing to sell players to bring the money in but at that stage we had over and above the valuation of the player, we had a player who wanted do leave.

"So at that stage we thought it was good business for the club."

Injuries have limited Lang to only eight Championship appearances this season, scoring two goals.

Portsmouth face his new club on Saturday (15:01 GMT) with a trip to Deepdale but Lang has not featured since Boxing Day because of a hamstring issue.

"I was consulted throughout and the decision was made quite late to allow Callum to leave," added Mousinho.

"We were firm in what we thought the valuation of Callum was, we weren't going to cave [in] in terms of that.

"It was never a case of we might have a player who isn't happy here that's going to force our hand, it was just getting the right valuation and doing what was right for the football club."

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