Chesterfield 'thoroughly deserved' win, admits 'disappointed' Portsmouth boss

Tom Naylor headed the winner in the first-half against his old club. But the scoreline could have been a lot bigger had the Spireites been more ruthless in front of goal after a dominant second-half.

“I thought Chesterfield thoroughly deserved to win the game,” Mousinho told The News.”They were the better side, even though we had the better of it and controlled the game up until half-time.

‘In the second half we were really poor, Chesterfield ran all over us. The final result is a really fair reflection.”

Such was Town’s dominance after the break, Mousinho said that it felt like his team had 10-men. Having gone into the game top of League One and unbeaten in the league in 26 matches, it came as a surprise to the away boss.

He explained: “It’s the first time it has happened in a long, long time, so we’ve got to make sure we take it with a pinch of salt.

‘I was also disappointed with the quality we displayed in the final third. The lack of quality was probably the worst I have seen since I’ve been here. We kept crossing the ball behind, we couldn't get shots off and, when we did have opportunities, we didn’t get at the target. I cannot think of one time when we tested the goalkeeper at all.”

He continued: ‘If you want to sum up the game pretty well, it was when we had a corner in the last minute and the goalkeeper came up – and we didn't deliver the ball into the box. That probably sums up the decision making, especially in the second half.

“It’s easy to get carried away because of how poor we were in the second half, but the first half we were absolutely fine without really having too much cutting edge. We conceded from a set-piece, but the second half was just not good enough.’