‘We had far bigger issues than that’: Portsmouth Boss speaks on under-fire Ben Killip against Sheffield Wednesday

‘We had far bigger issues than that’: Portsmouth Boss speaks on under-fire Ben Killip against Sheffield Wednesday

Blues’ head coach wants to rewatch 2-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday before passing judgement

John Mousinho is adamant Pompey had ‘far bigger issues’ in defeat than Ben Killip’s display.

Although the Blues boss firstly wants to rewatch the dreadful Sheffield Wednesday game back before commenting on individual performances.

Killip was recalled to the Blues’ side after Nicolas Schmid was ruled out for up to 12 weeks with a fracture to the right hand sustained at Southampton.

Indeed, the goalkeeper produced a stunning sixth-minute stop from Svante Ingelsson’s diving header and a number of other saves throughout to keep the scoreline down to a humbling 2-0.

However, Killip’s effectiveness when dealing with Barry Bannan’s left-footed free-kick opener has been called into question.

While he once again faced criticism from some supporters over the quality of his kicking on his fifth appearance for the Blues.

But rather than delivering instant judgments on any individuals, Mousinho wants to study the match.

Mousinho: I could have made 11 subs at half-time

He told The News: ‘He made a good save early on and probably kept the scoreline down with some of his saves.

‘I will assess everybody’s performance (over the weekend), Ben wasn’t the issue on Saturday, we had far bigger issues than that.

‘We can stand here and try to dissect individual performances, but I could have made 11 subs at half-time. I did say that to the boys, I don’t think anybody was good enough.

‘There are some good things we saw in there, I think the biggest positive was Luke Le Roux coming on in the second half and doing as well as he did. I am sure the players are under no illusions they could do better.

‘With Ben, I need to have a look at it back. I’m not in the process of singling out any individuals.’

Struck by mounting injuries

Pompey were without Josh Murphy (ankle) and Minhyeok Yang (hamstring) against Sheffield Wednesday as they became the latest casualties.

In addition, Conor Shaughnessy’s hamstring went early in the second half while chasing the ball, allowing George Brown to run on unopposed to net the Owls’ second goal.

Meanwhile, Zak Swanson, one of the rare positives in the first half, was forced off at half-time after feeling unwell.

That prompted Regan Poole to switch to right-back, with Josh Knight coming off the bench to initially partner Shaughnessy, and Luke Le Roux replacing the below par John Swift.

Although, on 52 minutes, Pompey had to make another change in Shaughnessy, with Hayden Matthews introduced for his first league outing since February against QPR.

Portsmouth boss: He was under the weather

Mousinho added: ‘Swanny wasn’t feeling great, he was slightly under the weather. He came in at half-time and spoke to Steve Hard (head physio) about not feeling the best.

‘So we thought we would get a bit more physicality on the pitch and have those driving runs from Regan going forward.

‘We just needed to make a change because I didn’t think the performance was good enough for the first 45 minutes.’