‘Perfect ending’ for Mous as late double nets last-day victory
John Mousinho hailed the ‘perfect ending’ as Pompey bid farewell to League One with a victory.
Late goals from Myles Peart-harris and Paddy Lane secured a 2-0 triumph at play-off hunting Lincoln on Saturday.
It brought the curtain down on a magnificent title-winning campaign which saw the Blues amass a staggering 97 points.
And for Mousinho, Pompey’s impressive boss, it marked a fitting finale.
He told The News: ‘It feels like the perfect ending.
‘We’ve managed to go back into that dressing room with the group of players and I’m not moaning about the result, which is great.
‘I wouldn’t have done that anyway, but it was a characteristic performance of what we’ve been able to do this season.
‘And the other part of it, which was really pleasing, was we managed to bring in players who have hardly played at all this season and they did superbly well.
‘To look at the league table and see us five points clear of Derby and 10 points clear of Bolton is brilliant.
‘The only disappointing thing is we didn’t get to 100, but you can’t have everything and we weren’t at it last week (in the 2-1 loss to Wigan), but it was good to have a week back where everybody was settled down physically and mentally and at it again.
‘I’m delighted with the day’s work because, with everything that has gone on over the past 10-15 days and the highs we’ve had, we have been able to come back down to earth and prepare against a side which had everything to play for.’
Peart-harris opened the scoring with a firsttime finish from Lane’s pass, before Lane wrapped it up after substitute Abu Kamara’s shot struck a post.
Mousinho added: ‘To beat them in their own backyard was brilliant. It was a terrific game of football and one we thoroughly deserved to win.
‘We had a lot of control in the first half, although didn’t create a huge amount in the opening 30 minutes.
‘The second half was slightly different, Lincoln pressed us a bit higher and that opened up other opportunities at the other end of the football pitch.
‘That was part of our thinking in terms of bringing Christian (Saydee), Abu and Kusini (Yengi) on, with that extra physicality to open them up.’