John Mousinho sees change of tactics pay dividends as Portsmouth end winless run

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho believes a change of tactics inspired his side to finally secure their first win of the season.

Pompey came from behind to beat QPR 2-1 to clinch a first victory since last season’s promotion from League One and leave the west London side bottom of the Championship.

And Mousinho felt his decision to adopt a more direct approach paid off.

He said: “The most important thing was to win the game, which we did. It wasn’t in terrific style but that was deliberate from us – we wanted to make it a difficult game.

“It wasn’t pretty at times, but we’ve gone away this season and invited far too much pressure by trying to play and probably trying to be a bit too intricate.

“One of the things we wanted to avoid today was inviting pressure on our goal. We wanted to get the ball into their half and play from there.

“So we were much more direct than we probably have been for the last 18 months, but we’re trying to be a bit more effective and get the ball forward.

“From that point of view I’m delighted with the performance. In the second half when we were 2-1 up and the pressure was on, I didn’t think we were troubled.”

Mousinho hopes the long-awaited win will prove to be a turning point in Pompey’s season.

“Hopefully it kick-starts it,” he said. “The performances have been really positive but today we got through it and that should give us the confidence to go into any game and compete.”

QPR boss Marti Cifuentes insisted he remains “very calm” despite his team sinking to the bottom of the table, and he defended Morgan Fox, whose errors led to Portsmouth’s goals.

“I spoke with the players and we have two ways to face this tough situation,” said Cifuentes,

“Either we accept where we are, work harder and accept criticism – because that’s the nature of football – and accept that we need to get better, or we just start to point fingers and then it gets more difficult.

“I’m very calm about how the guys are working and the commitment. I’m aware though that we need to improve.

“I have full confidence in those guys and I do believe that we can turn the situation. It is very early to just say we will not be good enough.

“I stay calm. I’ve coached in five different countries, I’ve been doing this job for almost 20 years and I’ve been in tougher situations.

“We need to improve very quickly but I believe it will get better.”

It was a terrible day for defender Fox, who gave the ball away in the build-up to Freddie Potts equalising after Karamoko Dembele’s opener.

And Fox gave away a second-half penalty by hacking down Callum Lang, who tucked away the resulting spot-kick.

But Cifuentes said: “I trust Fox. I trust him a lot. He was very important for us last season, a brilliant professional.

“Today he will not be happy and I am not a guy who will come in here pointing. I can make better decisions. I take responsibility.

“He is a fantastic professional and I am sure that he will show it in the next games.”