North End skipper and goal scorer John Mousinho told PNE.Com he would swap the feeling of scoring his first goal for the Club for a win against Leeds United
PNE Player will be bringing you live commentary from the midweek trip to Plymouth Argyle in what will be North End’s final pre-season fixture.
“We haven’t done that so there is only so much enjoyment I can take from the game but like I said we will learn from it and we will come back stronger and a lot better. It is a lot better if it happens now rather than nine days time.”
“It is an honour just to pull on the shirt and the captain’s armband, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I was coming in here and speaking about it after we had won and kept a clean sheet.
“I thoroughly enjoyed leading the team out, I always enjoy playing here and I have loved leading the lads out for the last few games,” concluded the number 21.
Enjoying the experience of captaining the side, the former Wycombe man is ready to put in the work with the first game nine days away.
A summer capture from Stevenage, Mousinho has led North End out on a number of occasions during the pre-season programme, demonstrating his leadership skills to the squad and supporters.
“Maybe it is a case of being more clinical at both ends because we have given a couple of goals away from set pieces and we have had a couple of chances from set pieces that we haven’t put away including myself which I was guilty of missing. We will watch the video of the game and take it from there.”
“We have got another game to put things into practice but we didn’t create as much as we would have liked but saying that we missed a few chances.
“It is encouraging compared to a couple of weeks ago so there are some good signs, there are things we have already identified after the game that we need to work on and we have got time to do that.
“It shows that we are capable of producing a good performance but we are not quite there in terms of producing the result. We can take positives away but we know what we need to work on.
Continuing his exclusive interview with PNE.Com: “It was a good match to see what mark we are at now, it is an English opposition so we get more of a chance to see what we will be coming up against week in week out in League One.
Mousinho believes the Leeds test was a good bench mark for the North End squad and it shows they are more than capable of matching Championship opposition, with Huddersfield Town the visitors in just over one week’s time in the Capital One Cup.
Down the years North End and United have played out a number of memorable matches, including Play-Off semi-finals and an incredible 6-4 win for PNE at Elland Road two seasons ago.
“We have got plenty to work on but we have still have plenty of time so there are some encouraging things to take but we have also got a lot to learn. It is better that it happens now with nine days to go before the Huddersfield game.”
“Looking on general play we have done well but we have conceded too many and we haven’t scored enough.
“On possession and chances we deserved to win the game but at the end of the day we have conceded three sloppy goals and we haven’t been clinical enough in the final third.
Reflecting on today’s game he said: “It feels good to score the goal but it was disappointing that the game ended up finishing 3-1. I would take a win over a goal all day but it was a good feeling breaking the goal scoring duck at Preston.
However Mousinho knows that the Lilywhites have to be more clinical at both ends of the pitch.
The 3-1 result in the Championship club’s favour didn’t read how the game panned out, with North End playing an attractive brand of football.
The energetic midfielder put in an all-action performance against the Yorkshire outfit, running tirelessly from back to front.