As Portsmouth lost 2-0 on the road to Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup, manager John Mousinho acknowledged that he “didn’t think there was much point” in talking to his team.
Pompey only had three significant opportunities in the match at Adams Park, despite returning to the Championship after a 12-year break.
With the score at 0-0, Paddy Lane and Christian Saydee gave up the first two goals in the first five minutes of play. In the last seconds of the game, Tom McIntyre forced Nathan Bishop to make a stop.
The Chairboys were ahead 2-0 at that moment and didn’t appear to be in danger of losing.
Despite acknowledging that the league was “more important,” Mousinho, who played for Wycombe for two years from 2008 to 2010, wanted his team to be “a lot more competitive” than they currently were.
Sonny Bradley and Brandon Hanlan scored goals for Wanderers.
The latter played 38 games and scored two goals during his one season with the South Coast club in 2013–14.
“After a very hectic Christmas period, we have Blackburn this week, which will be our fifth away game in six,” Mousinho stated.
We have had to rely on our core as a result, and I felt that making the necessary adjustments was the appropriate thing to do.
We didn’t want to risk any injuries to key players and now it’s just about resting legs for the game on Wednesday.
“Even though we all know that the Championship is the most important thing for us, I still think we should have been a lot more competitive than we were tonight.
“I haven’t said anything to players as I didn’t think there was much point – we’ll review the game tonight and there’s not much you can say about the performance.
“We were way below the standard.”
Adams Park hosted the cup match for the first time in the two clubs’ competition history.
Additionally, it was the second FA Cup meeting between the two teams; the first came in the 2016–17 campaign, when Wycombe defeated them 2-1 at Fratton Park.
With six minutes left, Chairboys icon Adebayo Akinfenwa scored the game-winning goal.
