'In the making' - Portsmouth boss John Mousinho in Leeds United prediction after triumph and penalty view
Boss John Mousinho saw his Pompey side end Leeds United’s 17-game unbeaten run.
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho served up more Leeds United praise after seeing his side end the team’s unbeaten run with a prediction and very honesy penalty admission.
Leeds were denied what appeared an obvious penalty in the early stages when Dan James was felled by Matt Ritchie who volleyed the back of the winger's leg as he looked to clear in a crowded box.
Portsmouth went on to record a 1-0 victory and boss Mousinho admitted post match to Sky Sports that his team had probably “got away with one” in referee Robert Jones failing to award Leeds a spot kick.
Mousinho, though, praised his side’s performance for standing up to a “top, top side” in Leeds who he predicted were a Premier League team in waiting despite Sunday’s setback.
Speaking post match, Mousinho said: “It's definitely right up there (with best performances since he’s been here), I want to sound too cliched and boring, but it feels even better if we go and follow that up Wednesday and again on Saturday, those are the most important things.
“I will take the ecstasy of today and how well the boys have played and how brilliant it was to be here at Fratton Park - and certainly in the moment it feels like a massive win and it was a brilliant, brilliant day.
“The atmosphere all the way through the game was brilliant, the game built up quite rightly, two proper football clubs coming together and at different ends of the spectrum at the moment and a side who I think are littered with Premier League quality coming here so naturally the atmosphere was really good and the way we went about our business in the second half, the whole stadium was absolutely rocking.
“(Best performance of the season) I think so, yes, we’ve had some really good ones at home and I thought we were exceptional away at Sheffield United without getting the rewards, so it feels like it right now.
“I think Leeds are a top, top side, they are a Premier League team in the making and to come here and do what we did, probably the best performance so far this season, we’ve got to keep on top of that and keep going.
“It was built on the physicality, build the performance on how well we pressed, and the effort that was put in and the time the press was broken, we had to recover to sprint and put in tackles and headers in, we defended the box pretty well.
“Interestingly, I thought a couple of Leeds’ better moments came from us making some poor errors, errors of judgment, back inside the pitch and not winning tackles.
“If we break it down, I think we’ve got 11 lads and the subs coming in absolutely shattered and that says everything.”
Speaking post match on Sky Sports, Mousinho was asked for his reading of the Leeds penalty claim incident and said: "I think at the time I thought that Matty had won the ball.
"I think, in all honesty, I won't hide behind it, I'm not sure that he did so if it's one of those that we have got away with then we have got away with it.
"We have been on the end of plenty of decisions that I don't think have gone our way as well.
"Sometimes you need that and when you down at the bottom often you don't get those decisions and we haven't for large parts of the season.
"I'll be honest about it, if it's a penalty it's a penalty we got away with one and we just have to ride our luck and move on."