Ian Darke thrilled with John Mousinho despite ‘stormier waters’ to come for Portsmouth
Portsmouth will enter “stormier waters” this season but John Mousinho has continued to impress Ian Darke in the Championship.
Pompey have weathered a massively difficult start to the fixture list back in the Championship and sit second-bottom of the division with three points and zero wins from five games.
Mousinho leads his side to Turf Moor to take on another promotion-tipped side in Burnley on Saturday, and iconic commentator and Blues fan Darke commends the job he and sporting director Rich Hughes have done.
“Pompey have a good head coach in Mousinho – he’s smart, he’s articulate and he understands players having recently been a player himself,” Darke exclusively told Pompey News.
“He gets the club, and most of the decisions he has made have been good ones – aided of course by Rich Hughes on the recruitment side. The biggest test will be how he copes in what is likely to be some stormier waters this season.
“It’s important that most of the fans understand it might be a rocky road this season, and Mousinho definitely knows how it’s going to be.”
Portsmouth have time to improve form
When the fixtures were first released in late June, many judged a points total of around seven points from the opening seven games for Portsmouth as satisfactory, given the general standard of their opponents.
Burnley and Sheffield United remain in that first block of seven – all of whom you would back to be promotion candidates, and four points from the upcoming two to make that overall total would be an excellent return.
After the end of September comes a series of fixtures Mousinho will assess as being outrightly winnable, against mid-to-lower table sides with whom Pompey will likely battle it out come the business end.
There also has to be that crucial bedding-in period for the 14 new first-team signings at Fratton Park – some of whom have been robbed of their debuts so far due to injury issues.
Once the teething issues are ironed out and the fixtures become easier on paper, Pompey will be fine – certainly by the measure of at least three opponents being worse off by May.
In other Portsmouth news, Jacob Farrell is in line for his debut this weekend.
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