Pompey needed 'huge' result - Mousinho

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho said Pompey's 3-1 Championship win over Preston North End was "huge" ahead of the international break.

The victory was just Portsmouth's second in the league since their return to the second tier but moved them off the foot of the table.

"We knew that we needed the result after everything that's happened this season and this week as well," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"It's been really frustrating just to take the one point from those two games [against Hull City and Plymouth Argyle].

"So the result was the most important thing and very close second to that was the performance.

"It's huge in terms of the points we've picked up and just giving everybody a lift."

Mousinho said it had been a week of "head scratching and frustration" before the win at Fratton Park on Saturday.

"A point up at Hull, which we probably take, but we should have won the game," he added. "We certainly should have taken at least a point on Tuesday [at Plymouth].

"And we're sitting there thinking 'how on earth have we put ourselves in this position?' We know why - because we haven't been ruthless and clinical at both ends of the pitch.

"You probably don't want the international break to come now. But we've got a bit of an opportunity to rest some of the boys again. I think that will help us."