'Steady and reliable': John Mousinho salutes unheralded Portsmouth pair pivotal to Championship bid

John Mousinho has hailed the ‘steady and reliable’ double act providing the backbone to Pompey’s League One title bid.

Experienced pair Joe Rafferty and Connor Ogilvie remain first choice full-backs for the Blues’ head coach when available.

Left-back Ogilvie’s January return to fitness has coincided with a crucial regaining of form for Pompey, following a concerning Christmas period.

While right-back Rafferty has maintained remarkable consistency and, despite being overlooked as sponsors’ man of the match against Oxford United on Saturday, was the actual choice of many.

They duo rarely make the headlines, yet Mousinho recognises their importance to the push for the Championship. 

He told The News: ‘Having played with Josh Murphy at Oxford, I think he’s a Premier League winger, there’s no doubt about that in my mind, and I’m really pleased with the way Joe went about his business.

‘He was constantly at Josh, he put a lot of pressure on him, he dealt with the physicality really well and defended very, very well for large periods of the game.

‘Joe also gives us a huge amount going forward and a huge amount of energy. I was really pleased with his performance, I thought that was close to his best.

‘In both our full-backs we have very solid players who also give us a lot going forward. Certainly defensively is the starting position of a full-back in terms of what we want from them and they definitely give us a lot. They are very reliable in terms of output as well.

‘Joe and Connor are two very, very steady players, both technically really good, and we want them to build from the back too. We trust them implicitly in doing all of those things.

‘A bedrock of their success is they are really good defenders, really reliable defenders, but certainly they have a huge amount going forward as well.

‘Certainly those two have had a huge impact on our defensive record this season.’

Jack Sparkes has impressed when providing cover for Ogilvie this season, who was absent for two spells through injury.

While Zak Swanson, who returned to training on Thursday following a December groin operation, is vying for Rafferty’s position.

Mousinho added: ‘It’s good to have a bit of a mixture. When we looked at building the squad over the summer, we didn't want to have two full-backs in the same position that are carbon copies of each other. So we have a really good balance across the four.

‘In both pairs we have areas we need to work on, but the biggest positive for me is all of them want to take on board everything we’ve said.

‘They want to improve as players - and that’s a really good spot to be in.’