'Lost my head' - Portsmouth boss reveals hard truths after Leeds United score draw and late disappointment

Pompey could have found themselves 4-0 down inside the opening 10 minutes as Leeds ran riot and hit the crossbar three times before Pascal Struijk opened the scoring. But Elias Sorensen and Callum Lang found the net to turn the tide in the first half, asking big questions of Leeds' mentality. Willy Gnonto levelled and Leeds could have gone back into the lead, before Lang's injury-time penalty made it 3-2. Brenden Aaronson popped up to find an even later leveller for Leeds and he had a golden chance to win it but sidefooted wide, much to Mousinho's relief.

"I'd lost my head with the ref at that point," he said. "I thought it was a foul in front of the Portsmouth fans. Dragged our player down with both hands. I thought it was going to nestle in the back of the net. I was really relieved. Having said that if we had lost it wouldn't have changed the performance. I was grateful it went wide, we got away with one there. I am happy with a point, both sides will come off disappointed with the result. Leeds had the better chances and I'm guessing the takeaways [for them are] got to defend a bit better and put the ball in the back of the net. Leeds have some really good athletes, multimillion pound players who may go in the next few weeks. If I'm a Premier League manager I'm definitely snapping up one or two of them after today."

A draw at the home of a side widely tipped to win the league was something for Mousinho to be proud of but he knows it could have been even better. "Very difficult to sum up," he said. "Brilliant point, particularly where we were this time last week after a really poor week of football. The lads gave everything, Leeds know they've been in a game and we are gutted not to win the game. On balance it was a really good point. They're an outstanding side, got some outstanding individuals. To feel we could have won here is an amazing feeling."

The remarkable start to the game was more down to his team's performance than Leeds' he felt and when the hosts went ahead through Struijk's penalty it seemed to help rather than hinder Pompey.

"We were really poor for the first 10, we made a few sloppy mistakes, rather than anything Leeds did particularly brilliantly," he said. "I thought probably the goal was the best thing that happened to us, we just settled down. Leeds maybe thought it was going to be an easy afternoon, I wouldn't blame them after the first six or seven minutes but we settled down.

"The team and the squad have a huge amount of belief in themselves. We've got some good players, capable of mixing it at this level. We have to make sure we do compete and I don't think any of the fans will complain if we have players desperate to play for the shirt."