John Mousinho believes Pompey’s blunders cost them against Stoke City, with Nico Schmid in particular blaming himself.
And the angry Blues manager believes his squad can only blame themselves for squandering their lead against the Potters following an outstanding first-half performance at Fratton Park.
Pompey could and should have been more than a goal up at halftime after a superb 45-minute performance, with Tyrese Shade’s finish the difference.
Schmid then spilt Ben Johnson’s ball in for Jack McGlynn’s equaliser, before parrying Ethan Galbraith’s drive to Ben Wilmot for the visitors’ winner.
Mousinho acknowledged Schmid will be ‘disappointed’ with his role in the goals, but he also spotted other errors from his team in crucial times.
He said, ‘I’m sure Nico would be dissatisfied.
‘My impression, however, is that the game was plagued with technical errors on the side.
‘The first thing we did after kickoff was play the ball back to Nico and not block the number nine.
We’d had a warning, so Bozenik goes first, we give him a free run at Nico, and he has to put it on his left foot and go longer.
‘We then fouled Luke Graham, which set the tone for the second half.
‘All of those minor errors add up, and we didn’t do enough to get ourselves out of it.
Number one, do not give up the free kick. It’s an extremely terrible free kick to give away.
‘Number two, Galbraith has the shot; might Nico parry it better? I will take a look at that. Then number three, follow your man inside.
‘If you compound errors, you will lose.’
Mousinho acknowledged Pompey’s talent in the first half, but was frustrated by the way their performance after the break failed to match similar efforts.
He continued, “The contrast between the two halves was what cost us.”
‘We got what we deserved with how we started the second half. That’s even more perplexing given how excellent we were in the first half, how we played, and how we got the details correct.
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