City secured a first home win over Pompey since September 2011 at the weekend
Portsmouth manager John Mousinho admits Hull City feels a very different club to the one he went up against 12 months ago in the Championship.
Mousinho watched from the touchline on Saturday as City fought back from a goal down to win 3-2 and move up to fifth place in the Championship amid what’s been a terrific start to the new season.
Such a lofty place is in stark contrast to where City were last season when Pompey arrived on November 2, 2024. That game finished 1-1 and left the Tigers 15th, with 15 points. After that contest, Tim Walter criticised the supporters and just three weeks later, lost his job.
City then arrived at Fratton Park on the final day of last season back in early May ,needing a result to stay in the league, and they survived on goal difference.
“They’re just a completely different team as you’d expect,” Mousinho told Hull Live. “The results and performances of last year, teams of last year, are just completely irrelevant when you come into the new season.
“They’ve got threats all over the football pitch. They’ve added really well and clearly didn’t let their heads go down when we weren’t a goal ahead.
“It’s always tough to pair against. It’s a new manager, it’s a new set of players. Some of them are obviously the same, but very different to when we were here this time last year and also at the back end of the season.”
Pompey netted twice at the MKM Stadium on Saturday, meaning only Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United have shipped more than the 24 the Tigers have, and Mousinho pinpointed areas of the Tigers’ side that could be exploited.
“We thought from not necessarily all areas of the pitch (but certain areas). I don’t look at Hull (City) thinking completely you’re (City) really vulnerable, but certainly there’s areas that we could exploit.
“There’s areas we would definitely look to try and exploit, whether we did that well enough or not, I don’t know. We’ve come away from home and scored two goals. Overall, I think Hull’s (City) start’s been good and they’re a solid side.”
On the overall look of the Championship, Mousinho has backed up Jakirovic’s theory that on their day, anyone can beat anyone else.
“I think it’s very even, extremely even,” he said. “I think pretty much anyone can beat anyone. It remains to be seen whether anyone runs away with it, but apart from the Birmingham game (lost 4-0), we’ve been in pretty much every game that we’ve played, which is a frustration as well because we find ourselves down at the bottom of the league, but I think it’s a very strong league.”
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