The Blues appeared destined for a rare point on their travels as a battling display at Coventry entered the final minute of time added-on.
Deadlocked at 0-0, it had been a dogged second-half display against Frank Lampard’s high-fliers, with Regan Poole and Connor Ogilvie superb at the heart of Pompey’s defence.
Then Cohen Bramall and Connor Ogilvie challenged aerially for the same ball, allowing Jack Rudoni the space to cross from the right – and be volleyed home by Jamie Paterson.
And, following a 16th defeat in 22 away games, Mousinho rued yet more late agony.
He told The News: ‘It was a really difficult one. I was going to say what a really good point away from home at Coventry, a very, very solid performance, we caused them problems and nearly caught them at the very back end of the game.
‘The difference between that – the positivity – to where we are now. It’s obviously a solid display and then 10 seconds of madness.
‘We have to be realistic about that. We can’t have those moments in games where we make really, really poor decisions because the ball ends up in the back of the net.
‘It was a longer ball and we’ve got two players going up for the same header. Cohen (Bramall) should have just left Connor (Ogilvie) to deal with the header – and if he loses it he is there for the man.
‘When you see it back, you will see all of a sudden the person playing right wing for Coventry emerges with the ball and it’s in the back of the net.
‘They gave everything, but unfortunately we are falling short on that and that’s the most frustrating thing. In the last three away games where we’ve come away conceding after 85-plus minutes, it’s not a fitness issue, it’s not that we look dead on our feet.
‘We put the work in and have put some really, really solid performances in. For the most part, it was an excellent performance, it should have been an excellent away performance, maybe we could have nicked it at the end.
‘But we didn’t, we haven’t, and that’s the reality of it. We dealt with everything, then just 10 seconds left on the clock. Just bizarre.
‘It blows my mind that we put ourselves in that position to have to defend from that point.’
Mousinho handed Thomas Waddingham a full debut and recalled Adil Aouchiche in two changes to the side which lost 2-1 at Millwall on Saturday.
That saw Matt Ritchie and Terry Devlin dropped to the bench – and there were aspects of the Blues’ display which pleased him.
He added: ‘In the first half we were excellent, we actually got the ball down and played. We were conscious of trying to do that slightly more than we did at Millwall.
‘We were always willing to go in behind if we needed to go in behind and I thought we caught Coventry a few times, but didn’t put the ball into the back of the net with a couple of good chances.
‘The second half was always going to be different and we couldn’t really get a grip of the game, we were a bit sloppy in possession, so it was backs to the wall, absorb the pressure, make the substitutions to mirror that.
‘Make sure we were nice and solid and to try to come away with a point or, because we still had the athleticism on the pitch, go and try what we did at the back end. But we lost.’
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