Poole hoping Mousinho stays at Portsmouth

Portsmouth defender Regan Poole says he hopes head coach John Mousinho stays at the club despite reports linking him with a move away.

The Blues boss has been at Fratton Park for three and a half years during which he achieved promotion from League One before two campaigns in the Championship.

Mousinho has already been linked with a switch to Bristol City who sit 13th in the division.

"I hope he doesn't leave," Poole told BBC Radio Solent.

"He's really good for me as a fellow centre-half, there's no surprise that he has interest as he's done a really good job at this football club.

"I've got a really good relationship with him and he has full belief in me which definitely helps me. I hope he remains here."

Portsmouth sealed their status as a Championship club in late April. A run of three wins in a row erased relegation fears when Pompey beat Middlesbrough, Ipswich and Leicester in the space of eight days.

Poole played 42 times across all competitions this season, only missing five league matches after an injury-hit season last campaign where he returned from rupturing his ACL and also sustained a significant calf injury.

Poole said that Portsmouth's survival was down to the mentality of the current group and tough conversations after a heavy defeat at QPR in March.

"It's been a tough season," he added.

"I can't be more grateful of the group we have because lots of other teams might crumble after the QPR loss but we stood up and got ourselves out of the situation.

"We didn't want to be in another relegation fight, we wanted to build on last season but the season wasn't really good enough to be honest.

"But getting it over the line in the way we did, we had to give absolutely everything, there was huge amounts of pressure on us and we knew we had to be top drawer to get over the line and we were."

Portsmouth end their season on Saturday with a home fixture against Birmingham City.