'It doesn't bother us at all': Portsmouth boss defends Brentford man's disappointing performance

John Mousinho is adamant he is unconcerned over Myles Peart-Harris’ frustrating Carlisle display.

And while he acknowledges the Brentford loanee was disappointingly below par, he has praised the attacker’s work-rate and commitment to the Blues.

The decision to substitute a lacklustre Peart-Harris in the 57th minute on Saturday proved crucial, with replacement Abu Kamara subsequently providing the attacking inspiration.

With the scoreline goalless at the time, five minutes later Kamara played a sublime diagonal ball into the path of Paddy Lane who stroked home a first-time finish for the match winner.

Representing Peart-Harris’ fourth appearance since last month’s arrival, it was comfortably his least effective outing.

But Mousinho still saw plenty to like from the youngster's Brunton Park showing.

He told The News: ‘Myles has had a really good introduction in terms of his contribution to us over the last three games, but wasn’t quite at the level on Saturday.

‘No issue, he still worked hard in that position, he looked like he was a threat. Things just didn’t quite come off for him or he got dispossessed when the ball didn’t fall for him.

‘Myles will be absolutely fine. He will have better games than that and it doesn't bother us at all. Our attacking players, especially, will sometimes be up and down and that’s fine. The minimum we demand from him is work-rate - and he put that in.

‘With Myles, one of the most pleasing things about bringing him in this window is he has really stepped up his work-rate from what I have seen. I don’t ever look on the pitch and think “He’s letting us down defensively”.

‘My only demand with him is I know he’s got a lot of quality on the ball, I know he can score, I know he can assist. We have probably seen it over three games in glimpses, we saw it consistently against Port Vale.

‘It’s making sure he does that consistently, that’s a big part of his learning curve as a young lad on loan.’

A criticism of the Brentford man was a growing habit of falling to the floor too easily when challenged.

But Mousinho is relaxed over that side of the 21-year-old’s game.

He added: ‘I just think he had a couple of good tackles. Myles probably didn’t think they were, I didn’t have any complaints. That’s absolutely fine.

‘I want him to get at players, I want him to take players on, he’s a powerful player. When you ask players to take players on, they get tackled more. That’s fine.’