View: Mousinho will surely be concerned after what 39% Portsmouth player did v Charlton
Portsmouth continued their rather underwhelming preparations for their Championship return with a defeat against Charlton Athletic.
Tyreece Campbell and Gassan Ahadme were on the scoresheet at The Valley as Pompey fell 2-0 in Saturday’s (3 August) pre-season friendly.
Worryingly for John Mousinho, the usually reliable Will Norris was at fault for both goals in the capital in a terrible individual performance.
Norris allowed Campbell’s shot to squirm under him for the first, before being left stranded for the second that Ahadme was able to convert.
Despite the shaky display, Norris will be the first name – quite literally – on the team sheet when Portsmouth face Leeds United next weekend.
Will Norris key to Portsmouth promotion success
Norris played a big part in Pompey’s promotion from League One last season, boasting a save-percentage return of 73 [FBref].
That was the fourth-best return in the division, bettered only by Nathan Baxter (74 per cent), Joe Wildsmith (75) and Lukas Jensen (78).
The 30-year-old’s clean-sheet percentage of 39 per cent was only the sixth-best return in the division, but that is down to other factors.
Should he register a similar save-percentage return in the Championship, Portsmouth should do just fine defensively.
As he showed with his penalty save and man of the match display in the win over Lincoln City at the end of last season, which earned him EFL recognition, Norris can often be relied upon.
His passing accuracy of 68 per cent that day [WhoScored] was also notable, with his distribution certainly a strong point.
That is not to say Mousinho will not be quietly concerned about what he saw in the Charlton game, though, as any sort of shortcomings in the Championship will be brutally exposed.
Fingers crossed Norris has got those errors out of his system in time for the real business getting up and running next weekend.
In other Portsmouth news, Mousinho has shared an injury update ahead of the start of the new season.
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