John Mousinho hails impact of Portsmouth debutant Adrian Segecic

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho felt his team’s 1-0 win at Oxford in the Championship was fully deserved and saluted matchwinner Adrian Segecic.

Australian Segecic, a summer signing from FC Sydney, struck in the 38th minute of his debut with a sharp follow-up finish after Jamie Cumming saved from Colby Bishop.

Mousinho said: “I thought it was a really good performance for 60 minutes.

“We controlled the game in the first half and I thought we deserved the lead. We created by far the better chances of the game.

“Naturally towards the back end of the game there was a lot of pressure on our goal with the corners and long throws, which we dealt with largely pretty well.

“There were just a couple of mistakes we made which led to a build-up of pressure.

“But overall I’m extremely pleased. We’re not going to be the finished article by any means on August 9 but it’s something to build on, and a clean sheet as well.

“Segecic was great not just to get the winning goal but his workrate was superb as well.

“His pressing was great and he picked himself up into some very nice pockets at times, so I was really impressed with him on his debut.

Oxford head coach Gary Rowett did not blame Cameron Brannagan, whose mistake started the attack that led to Segecic’s goal.

Rowett said: “It was one mistake and that was the main factor in the game.

“Other than that Portsmouth edged the game without creating a lot of moments, but one mistake gives them that little bit of impetus to hold on to, and they defended well.

“Michael Helik could maybe have dropped just a little bit deeper when Cammy made that mistake – he wouldn’t normally make that pass, but he’s been brilliant for us previously and it is what it is, just one mistake, probably a lack of concentration.

“It was a physical encounter. Probably for most of the first half and a little bit of the second half we were a little off it and couldn’t quite connect possession together well enough.

“We had some moments but couldn’t move quickly enough to not allow them some moments in the final third, and we allowed them to dictate some of those moments.

“There wasn’t much football or fluidity in the game, every chance seemed to come from a mistake.

“But I thought the last 20 minutes was exactly what you would hope – there was more of an edge to us and more quality, there were some great balls in the box and more shots.

“We really should punish one of those – of course Nicolas Schmid made a couple of very good saves, and Jamie made one for us in the first half.

“But from that last 20 minutes I thought we deserved something from the game.”