Joe Morrell has been warned that his lack of discipline may prevent him from reaching the “next level.”
That’s John Mousinho’s assessment following the influential midfielder’s fifth dismissal in 94 Pompey appearances.
Following a challenge on Karamoko Dembele in the second half of Saturday’s heavy defeat to Blackpool, the Welsh international was shown a second yellow card.
It came in the 64th minute, with the Blues trailing by two goals, and the 10-men went on to lose 4-0 at Fratton Park.
Morrell has been in excellent form this season, captaining the team in Marlon Pack’s absence due to injury, but he will now miss two games.
And Mousinho refused to defend the former Bristol City player after his second dismissal of the season.
Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘I thought it was a sending off; he should have stayed on his feet, and I’ve told Joe that.
‘After the Peterborough red card, I said I didn’t mind that one at all; he has tried to bring the guy down when they’re on the break. However, this one he needs to be a lot more sensible with.
‘Now Joe is missing two games for something where an experienced pro like him has to do better.
‘In this instance, the most important thing was me letting him know he needs to be better in those moments—and that he actually knows it himself.
‘That’s a massive learning curve for him; it’s the only thing I think is going to stop him from going to the next level.
‘In the dressing room, he apologised to the players; he held his hands up and said he knows he needs to be better, so fair play.
‘But his dismissal was massive in the context of the game. Who knows what would have happened, but, with the momentum we were building at that point and obviously having just had the penalty shout, we would have had a right go.
‘We had options to change the game and, after Joe was sent off, didn’t manage to bring Kusini on until we were down to 10 men.’
Coincidentally, Blackpool marked Pack’s return from ankle ligament damage sustained at Wigan in September.
Now he and fellow midfielder Ben Stevenson, who were introduced in the 80th minute, are battling each other to replace Morrell at Burton on Tuesday evening (7.45 p.m.).
Mousinho added, ‘Marlon is one of the players that can fill in there.
‘Him coming back into the fold and getting some minutes at the weekend was a real positive for us in an otherwise pretty disappointing afternoon.
‘We’ve obviously also had Ben, who has competed really well when he’s come in.’
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