Portsmouth

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho said that their draw away at Norwich City was a "big point" on the road.

The Blues went behind in the first half as Pelle Mattsson struck home, but were able to claw themsleves level from a freekick in the final moments that eventually saw Mattsson poke the ball into his own net.

With Oxford and Leicesrer City also drawing on Friday, the point was vital for Portsmouth who still remain outside of the relegation zone.

"It feels like a bit point, the biggest thing for me today was the performance," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"After the QPR loss we were searching for answers and that was the lowest point of the season, to then go a goal down and respond like we did was really pleasing.

"We defended well and dug in when we needed to, Norwich have some very good players and we had to deal with those tough moments when they were on top.

"We were in the game when behind which was the most important thing, we weren't clinging on though and we were trying to be positive with the ball when we had it, I thought the subs did really well when they came on too."

Portsmouth are next back in action on Monday night when they face relegation rivals Oxford United at Fratton Park.

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Championship clubs spent just over £69.5m on agents fees over the past 12 months according to figures released by the Football Association,, external an increase of £6m on the previous year.

The figures cover the period from February 2025 with Ipswich Town the top spenders, paying £11.7m having spent the first three months of the accounting period in the Premier League.

Southampton (£8.3m) and Leicester (£5.8m), who were relegated alongside Ipswich are the second and third-highest payers on the list.

Troubled Sheffield Wednesday were the most frugal when dealing with agents, spending £534,559.

Wrexham come in sixth on the list with an outlay of £3.6m while current Championship leaders Coventry spent just short of £1.5m.

Championship agents' fee spending, external

• Ipswich - £11,738,920

• Southampton - £8,381,358

• Leicester City - £5,866,587

• Sheffield United - £5,005,498

• Norwich - £4,020,206

• Wrexham - £3,660,584

• Swansea - £3,088,645

• Middlesbrough - £2,900,314

• Bristol City - £2,774,990

• Hull City - £2,450,431

• Stoke City - £2,088,886

• Birmingham City - £1,996,502

• Millwall - £1,982,348

• Preston North End - £1,831,233

• QPR - £1,829,036

• Watford - £1,612,833

• Coventry - £1,497,990

• Derby - £1,409,507

• West Brom - £1,346,030

• Oxford - £1,235,536

• Charlton - £904,698

• Portsmouth - £831,818

• Blackburn - £676,980

• Sheffield Wednesday - £534,559

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Portsmouth forward Gustavo Caballero scored his first senior international goal as Paraguay were beaten 2-1 by Morocco in their friendly in Lens, France.

The 24-year-old came on as a second-half substitute to earn his second cap and headed in a cross from Juan Jose Caceres with two minutes remaining.

Caballero had made his debut for Paraguay, also as a substitute, in a 1-0 win over Greece last Friday.

He is on loan at Portsmouth from Brazilian side Santos and is set to be part of Paraguay's squad for this summer's World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico in which they have been drawn in a group with the USA, Australia and Turkey.

Caballero will now return to England for Portsmouth's Championship match at Norwich on Friday (15:00 BST).

Portsmouth will be seeking space between themselves and the bottom three as they head to Carrow Road on Good Friday (15:00 BST).

Pompey are only one point clear of the bottom three and on a dreary winless spell of six league games.

To add to their woes, Norwich will not be an easy opponent. The Canaries have been flying under boss Philippe Clement, winning five of their past six games (L1) to put them nine points under the play-off positions.

• Following their 2-1 win in August, Norwich are looking to complete the league double over Portsmouth for the first time since 1996-97.

• Portsmouth have won their last two away league games against Norwich, beating them 5-3 last season. They've never won three in a row against them before, while their two consecutive wins is more than they managed in their previous 15 visits to Carrow Road (W1 D7 L7).

• Since the weekend of Philippe Clement's first game in charge in November, no side has won more Championship games than Norwich (14, level with Coventry City).

• Portsmouth have lost five of their last six league games (D1), including the last three in a row. They last lost four consecutively in March 2021 in League One.

• Only Sheffield Wednesday (43) and Oxford (55) have had fewer big chances than Portsmouth in the Championship this season (58), while Pompey have the lowest big chance conversion rate (24.1%).

David Mohan
BBC Sport NI journalist

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Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has called Portsmouth winger Millenic Alli into his squad for Tuesday's friendly against North Macedonia in Dublin [19:45 BST].

The 26-year-old earns his first call-up to the senior squad and took part in training at Abbotstown on Sunday.

Alli began his career in England playing non-league before signing for Exeter City in 2024, catching the eye of Luton Town who spent £1.5 million to bring him to Kenilworth Road.

The Dubliner scored four goals in the final six games of last season, but the Hatters would suffer relegation to League One.

Despite falling out of favour, Alli was picked up on loan by Portsmouth and he has started all 14 games since his arrival at Fratton Park.

He has scored once in the Championship club's bid to beat the drop and his performances have caught the attention of Hallgrimsson who brings him into the squad with others unavailable for Tuesday.

Midfielder Jack Taylor has left the squad for family reasons, while Sammie Szmodics has returned to Derby County to continue his recovery from a concussion sustained in Thursday's World Cup play-off semi-final defeat on penalties by the Czech Republic.

That defeat in Prague saw the Republic of Ireland's hopes of qualifying for this summer's World Cup come to an end, while North Macedonia were beaten in their semi-final by Denmark, leaving both nations to face each other in a friendly.

The BBC's 72+ EFL podcast team have taken a look at the Championship relegation picture, with some huge games in store at the end of the international break.

Easter Monday (6 April) sees Blackburn and West Brom face-off, level on points just above the drop zone, just hours after second-bottom Oxford United head to Portsmouth.

Third-bottom Leicester will also head to Portsmouth and Blackburn during the run-in.

Former Watford and Reading winger Jobi McAnuff said: "We know Easter weekend is absolutely pivotal and that Portsmouth v Oxford game is looming large, though they both have another game first (on Good Friday).

"It could genuinely could come down to those matches against the teams in and around you. They are absolutely massive.

"Portsmouth are, at the moment, the team I'd be a little bit concerned about in terms of their current form.

"You take it game by game, of course, but that is 100% one everyone in the squad is looking at going 'we need to win that game - if we are going to stay up that is a must win.'

"This two weeks now for Portsmouth is going to be the longest because it's doom and gloom - (losing) 6-1 against a team on their holidays in QPR (in their final game before the break)."

McAnuff also hailed the impact of interim West Brom boss James Morrison, who has taken eight points from his five games at the helm after replacing Eric Ramsey, winning the past two and only being denied three straight wins by a last-gasp leveller against Southampton.

"The big thing about those games - clean sheets," McAnuff said. "When you are in a battle, being hard to beat is the fundamental thing.

"They were really close against Southampton and got pegged back right in the last couple of minutes. It could have been a killer blow.

"To come back from that and now find those couple of wins, they'll have gone into this break absolutely bouncing. The confidence, that feeling back in the dressing room, is absolutely massive at this stage.

"Massive credit to James Morrison because there were a few eyebrows raised. He knows the club inside out and sometimes that's what it takes.

"At the moment he's had a really positive upturn."

"What Pompey simply have to do is make it hard to beat them.

"It's felt like teams recently had not had to work hard, not had to do anything significant to find victories."

BBC Radio Solent's Chris Wise and Andy Moon break down why team selection failed Portsmouth at the weekend in their 6-1 hammering by Queens Park Rangers and reflect on the negative atmosphere brewing within the fanbase.

Listen to the latest episode of Who Needs Mourinho? on BBC Sounds

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Midfielder Marlon Pack says the international break has come at "the right time" for Portsmouth after the worst performance of their season left them staring relegation in the face.

Pompey were were booed off the pitch by travelling fans at Loftus Road after being thrashed 6-1 by hosts QPR, a performance Pack admitted was "unacceptable".

"We need to come back better. We need to be asking questions about what we stand for. And we need to have honest conversations about what we need to do," Pack told BBC Radio Solent.

"In terms of the break it comes at the right time for us. We can have a big reflective period for all of us players. But we need to take accountability."

Portsmouth are in a worrying tailspin with the end of the season in sight with John Mousinho's side winless in six and just a point above the drop zone with eight games to go.

"Yes we are in a poor run of form but there are still plenty of games to go," said Pack. "We are out of the relegation zone but we can't rely on other people and other results we need to start taking ownership and taking care of business ourselves."

Tom Chappell
Portsmouth fan writer from Fournilwrittenalloverit

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Saturday was the darkest day of Pompey's season.

It left me, and I'm sure many present alongside us in the Loftus Road away end, genuinely shocked leaving the ground and heading home.

An argument you could've made heading into the weekend was that, although the results hadn't been falling our way, Pompey weren't being blown away and when losing, were usually losing by a single goal in games. On Saturday that completely changed.

The performance was insipid, we were hopeless and, based off what we saw, as heartbreaking as it is to say, nothing is telling me anything other than Pompey are going down.

With eight games to go and (somehow!) still a point keeping us above the drop-zone, that might sound like calling it early.

But I'd ask anyone to watch that 90 minutes of football and come to any conclusion other than this is a Pompey side with relegation written all over them.

Pompey's away following has snapped. The travelling support was visibly and audibly furious throughout the game and at full-time, and rightly so.

Chants in large part revolved around the ownership, many deemed the players not fit to wear the shirt.

For me, the zeitgeist of ownership at Pompey is absolutely a conversation to be had. We were under-funded in the summer, and under-funded in January. I've written previously about a rudderless Pompey being sent into battle.

But Sunday in isolation had very little to do with the powers that be at the football club. The performance was rancid and we got it very wrong from the off, and those decisions aren't board related.

In the same breath, John Mousinho did an exceptional job in the promotion season during his inaugural full campaign in management and played a blinder keeping us up last season. He is widely held as a huge gamble which paid off emphatically.

His decision-making has been questionable this season, granted, and he is far from immune from criticism, but there's only so many miracles a man can pull off.

Two years ago, our away trip to Peterborough ended up signifying the moment the fanbase knew we'd 'done it,' in terms of promotion from League One. It wasn't mathematically sound at the time, but it's a moment many reflect on as a time when we all believed.

Now, I'm afraid to say, I've got a horrible feeling that the QPR game may be a point we look back on as a time where many stopped believing. I'd be the first one to be happily proved wrong, but that is sadly the severity and precarious nature of Pompey's Championship status at this moment in time.

Find more from Tom at the Fournilwrittenalloverit, external YouTube channel

Andrew Moon
BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator

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For all the limitations of Portsmouth's recent performances they had been competitive in every game. They were not close to being so on Saturday.

Yes, Queens Park Rangers scored just about every time they had a shot but the first 30 minutes in particular were so poor defensively from Pompey.

Playing Ebou Adams as a number 10 and John Swift deeper was a huge failure. John Mousinho got that one wrong.

Pompey need Adams' athleticism in the midfield. The news that he's picked up a knee problem added injury to insult.

I can't remember the last time I've seen the away fans as angry as they were at the final whistle. They did not hide their fury when the players went over.

Portsmouth are outside the relegation zone and have a game in hand. But they've taken one point from six games. You'd be hard pushed to find a fan confident of Championship survival right now.

Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho has said there is "loads to unpick" from his side's 6-1 loss at Queen's Park Rangers on Saturday.

Mousinho was reflecting upon Pompey's 18th loss of the season which the stats would suggest was harsh on the visitors having registered more than double the number of Rangers shots and getting 33 touches inside the opposition box at Loftus Road.

Two goals each though from Paul Smyth, Rayan Kolli and Richard Kone - with Portsmouth's sole goal coming from John Swift in the first half - mean the south coast club are now only one point above the relegation zone.

"We conceded three goals in quick succession really early on and they felt particularly poor today," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"There is loads to unpick, we know what we've produced today is nowhere near good enough and if you come away from any game losing by that margin you know there's a lot of soul searching to do.

"Everybody has been talking in there but it's my responsibility with how we set the boys up today and what we've produced which is why head coaches get hired and why they're the ones that lose their jobs, and I need to take everything I've spoken about and heard in there and hopefully turn it into something positive."

Portsmouth do not have to drastically change the way they are playing to pull away from danger in the Championship, according to head coach John Mousinho.

Pompey have lost four of their past five league games and are just one point above the relegation zone as they prepare to visit QPR on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

"We need to make something happen - we need to commit more bodies in the box, change the quality of crosses, get better at set-pieces and get better at finishing," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"These are the things I'm going to focus on rather than ripping everything up and completely change the way we're going to play. We need to focus on a few things which leads me to being fairly measured and calm."

Only relegated Sheffield Wednesday (23) have scored fewer than Portsmouth's 36 league goals so far this season while their top scorer, Adrian Segecic, has found the net six times.

"I genuinely don't think we're a million miles away," added Mousinho

"If I did, everyone at the football club knows I'd change things quite dramatically and drastically which we have the ability to do but I don't think we need to at the moment."

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