Pompey 'clear underdogs' in derby - Mousinho

Head coach John Mousinho says Portsmouth head to Southampton for Sunday's South Coast derby as the "clear underdogs".

Though they have a game in hand, Pompey are 19th in the Championship, two points and six places below Saints, who would lie fourth were it not for the four-point penalty imposed on them in the wake of the Spygate saga.

Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent the three-week international break had been "long and unusual" but he had positive news on the injury front and said both sides could look forward to a fresh start in the game at St Mary's (12:00 BST).

"We are clearly the underdogs," he said. "Southampton have a squad that came down from the Premier League a couple of years ago and have strengthened it since and kept a lot of players over the summer.

"They have a very strong squad, very well-resourced - they are very heavy favourites, in my eyes."

Pompey have taken four points from their three away games this season while Saints have won all four matches at home, scoring 15 goals in the process.

"We know it's going to be a really difficult job and there's that hype and anticipation with the fact it's a derby - we'll be expected to raise our game," Mousinho added.

"I do like that sentiment, hopefully it works for us at the weekend, but I do want us to be consistently good and not just raise our game for some of those bigger fixtures.

"It's a good occasion to go and test ourselves against one of the best opposition in the league, have a good run at trying to disrupt their home form and see what we can do."

The sides played out a stalemate at St Mary's 13 months ago before Ebou Adams salvaged a late point in a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at Fratton Park in January but Mousinho said the key takeaway from last season was experience.

"The main thing was learning what to expect from the occasion," Mousinho added.

"It's a mixture of being just another game but also there's heightened importance to it - we want to find the right balance between the two.

"What we don't want is to get too carried away with the occasion, but we want to use that, if we can, to our advantage to really push on our performance.

"After three weeks off I think both sides are starting afresh and it will be a good encounter to get our teeth stuck into."

The Blues played "a really useful" behind-closed-doors friendly against Chelsea during the break and have no fresh injury concerns after the international window.

Defender Conor Shaughnessy will hopefully be available for Sunday after coming off against Blackburn on 19 September, while Mousinho has said forward Marko Milovanovic's status is "in the balance" and would not rule out winger Keshi Anderson being involved.

Despite some "nice progress", playmaker Josh Murphy remains two or three weeks away and full-back Connor Ogilvie could be out until the end of the month, despite returning to training on grass on Thursday.