‘One of his best performances’: Why Portsmouth boss is remaining upbeat despite agonising centre-half set-backs.
Regan Poole returned to Pompey duty with a timely interception and one of his ‘best performances’ of the season. That is the judgement of John Mousinho, who was pleased with the former Manchester United player’s cameo off the bench in Saturday’s defeat of QPR. Poole’s first competitive appearance in two and a half months came in the 39th minute, after Rob Atkinson suffered a calf injury. Indeed, a hamstring injury and a calf strain had kept the promising defender out of the Blues’ lineup for 15 games during his most recent absence.
However, Mousinho believes he saw the Regan Poole of old as he assisted Pompey to a key 2-1 victory to bolster their fight against relegation. The Blues’ head coach told The News: ‘Regan was very good. It was his first game since Norwich, and he had little competitive experience to draw on, but he came out of the cold in a physically demanding game. ‘Regan was excellent when he first returned against Burnley, and he was getting back into his stride near the conclusion of that stint. Then he was wounded against Norwich.‘I think QPR was one of his strongest performances. He made no blunders, and his physical condition was good. To come in and do that against a centre-forward (Michael Frey) who has been scoring goals and dominating was brilliant.
‘That was a huge ask for Regan to take on as a substitute at the moment. You have to come up to the game’s speed extremely quickly, and we’ve all seen how fast the Championship is this year. ‘I watched QPR defeat Derby 4-0 the other week; it was a tremendous performance from them; they have a brilliant forward four that is always threatening, and for Regan to be able to do that was fantastic. The entire degree of Atkinson and Matthews’ injuries are anticipated to be revealed at today’s pre-match press conference, when Mousinho previews the trip to Luton.
Following Saturday’s victory over QPR, the head coach claimed that Zak Swanson and Isaac Hayden should be fine, despite being substituted with injuries on 61 minutes. However, Atkinson left the game hobbling due to right calf injury, whereas Matthews was on crutches and wearing a protective book on his right leg. Regardless, Mousinho believes he still has choices for those centre-back positions as he prepares to face Championship bottom club Luton on Saturday. He continued, ‘We’ll see how Hayden and Rob are, but Regan is returning to the fold.
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