{"id":605204,"date":"2025-12-01T11:56:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605204\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:56:23","slug":"john-mousinho-makes-hungrier-bristol-city-admission-after-reds-step-up-to-portsmouth-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605204\/","title":{"rendered":"John Mousinho makes ‘hungrier’ Bristol City admission after Reds step up to Portsmouth challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol City were able to get the better of John Mousinho’s Portsmouth at Fratton Park, thanks in part to an electric first 25 minutesPortsmouth and John Mousinho continued their frustrating start to the season against Bristol City(Image: Photo by Scott Llewellyn | MI News\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bristol City looked “much hungrier” than Portsmouth in what proved to be a definitive opening 25 minutes at Fratton Park, according to John Mousinho, with the Pompey boss feeling his side gave the Reds’ early momentum in their win on the south coast.<\/p>\n

The Robins bounced back from their midweek defeat at Wrexham to secure a first three points away from Ashton Gate in four matches with a 1-0 win over Portsmouth on Saturday lunchtime<\/a>. In the end, Anis Mehmeti’s sixth goal of the season, which came early in the first half, proved to be the winner.<\/p>\n

City started on the front foot on the south coast<\/a>, and had a couple of opportunities to pull ahead prior to Mehmeti’s opener. Scott Twine and the Albanian international himself came close to beating Nicolas Schmid, before the 24-year-old headed Neto Borges’ cross into the back of the net<\/a> on 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

Although Portsmouth were able to grow into the contest leading into half-time<\/a> and after the restart, the damage had ultimately been done in the opening half an hour, much to the frustration of Mousinho, who was impressed by the Reds’ start to the first-half.<\/p>\n

“The game was pretty much defined by the opening 25 minutes where we just weren’t at the races at all,” the Pompey head coach told BBC Radio Solent<\/a> after the full-time whistle. “That’s probably putting it kindly.<\/p>\n

“We fell behind to a side that looked like they were much hungrier, that looked like they wanted the challenge of coming here and trying to win the game a little bit more, and it took us until that goal went in, and probably a little intervention after 25 minutes for us to really get going. After that, we were good in areas and we had that spell of pressure at the end of the first half, but we didn’t do enough in the second half to win the game.<\/p>\n

“It’s very difficult to put your finger on it,” he continued when asked what was behind the slow start. “There’s going to be a multitude of reasons; it’s never going to be one thing, but we just didn’t do any of the basics of the game particularly well.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sign up for our City newsletter<\/p>\n

Bristol City looking to build on last season’s play-off finish under Gerhard Struber and you won’t miss a beat with our free newsletter.<\/p>\n

All the latest news, views, interviews, gossip and analysis concerning the Robins, delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n

It’s completely free and you can sign up HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

“I don’t think we competed; the first thing that we did [was] we lost a header from the first action of the game, and we couldn’t really get ourselves going. Losing second balls, losing challenges, 50-50s, not clearing our lines properly, and I thought that gave Bristol City<\/a> a lot of momentum.”<\/p>\n

For Gerhard Struber’s side, the three points picked up at Fratton Park proved to be enough to send the Robins back into the Championship play-off places heading into December<\/a>. With a difficult run of games to come between now and Christmas, City sit sixth in the table, four points adrift of second-placed Middlesbrough and one point ahead of seventh-placed Hull City.<\/p>\n

From Portsmouth’s point of view, however, the current standings make for more worrying reading. After 18 games, Pompey find themselves 22nd – the final place in the relegation zone – having won just one of their last eight matches.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bristol City Live on Whatsapp<\/p>\n

Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bristol City Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n

Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n

To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n

No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n

We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n

To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, with 28 games still to play, there is ample time for the make-up of England’s second tier to change, and as a result, Mousinho isn’t too worried about his side’s current predicament<\/a>. Instead, the Portsmouth boss is keen to avoid a repeat of the opening exchanges of Saturday lunchtime.<\/p>\n

“The league position is obviously something we’re not pleased with, but what’s more concerning is that first 25 minutes,” said Mousinho. “That performance that we’re willing and able to go and put on at home.<\/p>\n

“Look, there’s plenty of time left in the season, obviously. There’s no panic at all; we’ve got plenty of games between now and Christmas, but we can’t keep going on saying, ‘We’re competing in games. We’ve been okay, we’ve nearly got there, we’ve maybe nearly brushed the equaliser.’<\/p>\n

“I can take losing games, you definitely have to take losing games at certain times of the season, but not in the manner that we produced in the first 25.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gerhard Struber clarifies Jason Knight situation after Bristol City captain absent at Portsmouth<\/a>READ MORE: Gerhard Struber details Bristol City shift as Red bring early ‘fire’ in ‘massive’ Portsmouth win<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol City were able to get the better of John Mousinho’s Portsmouth at Fratton Park, thanks in part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,14590,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-605204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football-league-championship","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115644189644538101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}