John Mousinho on his lowest point - and the 'wake-up call' which revitalised Portsmouth's promotion charge

By his own admission, it was John Mousinho’s lowest point of the season - yet the ‘wake-up call’ has reinvigorated Pompey’s Championship bid.

January’s embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Leyton Orient at Fratton Park marked a third defeat in five matches for the Blues, cutting down their League One lead to one point.

As a consequence, Peterborough, positioned in second place, were now one point behind with a game in hand, while third-placed Bolton ominously had three matches in hand and were two points adrift.

The breath of the chasing pack could be felt on the back of the neck of a faltering Pompey, who held an impromptu post-match inquest in the dressing room.

Mousinho’s men have subsequently taken 20 points from a possible 24 and extended their promotion advantage to an impressive seven points.

And, heading into Saturday’s visit of Oxford United, the chief coach has reflected on that outstanding player reaction.

He told The News: ‘It was probably my lowest point of the season, the one I really did look at.

‘I think I was honest in the post-match when we lost at Cheltenham and Bristol Rovers, I thought we actually deserved to win both of them. I can certainly live with the performance levels we put in on those days.

‘But it seemed we dipped below that against Leyton Orient, for a number of reasons. We were probably a bit tired and jaded after a busy Christmas period, things didn’t go well for us on the day, and we missed a penalty at a difficult time.

‘That was a wake-up call for the squad because we knew, at that point, sides were getting better and mounting challenges for play-off spots. Every team in the league now pretty much has something to play for, which makes it really interesting whether home or away.

‘We had a chat in the dressing room afterwards. You can wait for things to go completely wrong before you have a long chat, a sit down and crisis talks, but this was nothing like that.

‘It was just making sure we acknowledged the fact that we were still in a fantastic position in the league, still top, and deserved to be there after plenty of work.

‘That was something I wanted to make sure the lads grasped. My prevailing thought against Leyton Orient was we gave the game away a bit too easily without a huge amount of fight.

‘As a player, I’ve sat in plenty of those meetings and not really agreed with what everyone said in the room, but, for that one, everyone was on the same page, everyone knew we needed to do a lot more.

‘Thankfully, over the last few games, we have done that.’

In contrast to the Blues’ resurgence, chief rivals Derby and Bolton have now each lost successive matches.

And Mousinho is determined there won’t be another slip up for his own side.

He added: ‘Every week now we are wary of making sure we do focus on the positives, but the thought at the back of our minds is we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

‘The real trick is to make sure a reaction isn’t needed for the rest of the season, going into every game being proactive and trying to stay on top of ourselves.

‘That’s difficult through a 46-game season, but the key to any success.’