'What's the point' - Portsmouth boss slams Millwall fans and stadium staff over 'discriminatory language' incidents

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho was left furious with Millwall and a section of the club’s fans after Saturday’s clash between the Lions and Pompey at The Den. Millwall won the game 2-1 thanks to a double from Mihailo Ivanovic, the second of which came in the 87th minute, eight minutes after Pompey had scored a late equaliser.

But the win, which keeps Millwall within six points of the playoffs, was marred by claims from Portsmouth boss Mousinho that ‘discriminatory language’ was repeatedly being shouted from near the away dug-out. Mousinho reported the language to the referee, and then again at a later stage to the fourth official, with the game briefly stopped in a bid to deal with it.

But Mousinho says not enough was done by stadium staff, with the language continuing throughout the game, He told The News: “The reason I spoke to the ref was there was discriminatory language coming from behind the dug-out. The second time I reported it to the fourth official and it kept happening. I don’t know if we want to take discrimination seriously or not, the response there wasn’t serious, it was a joke.

“Not from the officials, by the way, they did their job. I think we just pay lip service to it and do nice videos and that’s it. I’ve come across it very rarely in football. What's the point, no-one does anything about it, so what’s the point? I have seen it with my own eyes today, I reported it, no-one did anything about it, it kept happening, kept happening, kept happening. It’s as simple as I can make it.”

Mousinho on the game

In terms of on the pitch matters, Mousinho was disappointed with what he saw from his team. He said after the game: “It feels like a bit of a deja vu from three weeks ago, to be honest. But the performance at Preston was better over the 90 minutes. We didn’t play particularly well on Saturday. We were a bit too predictable, we went long too early on without trying to get the extra pass, then started the second half a bit slowly as well.

“It wasn’t actually until we went a goal down that we started to play, started to play with a bit of confidence. We started to get the ball forward and put Millwall under pressure, we should have scored before we got the equaliser. We were very good when we went a goal down. We have to find a way to at least get close to that level of performance when we’re not a goal down. It was a case of getting back in the game and throwing it away again. It’s really frustrating when we get back into the game, then shoot ourselves in the foot and invite pressure before conceding the second.

“My reaction after Preston was we needed to get some realism into the boys about the situation and how we were performing. I suppose having that reaction again means it has fallen on deaf ears. It had fallen a bit on deaf ears against Preston, although we did react against Blackburn - and now we’ve done the same things again.”

He added: “We didn't show enough bravery. We're not asking the lads to play 25-pass sequences out from the back and get it forward. We're asking to play the extra pass to try to entice the press and then go beyond that if we need to. Otherwise it’s just going to be an easy day for the likes of (George) Saville and De Norre, who can pick up all the second balls they want all day if they know we are going to go longer. As soon as the pressure’s off because we go a goal down, we start to play and start to show what a good side we are. We have to try to find a way to do that from the start.”

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