Staring into Championship abyss: Pompey boss and his biggest challenge in management

John Mousinho paused for a second, looked to the heavens and found the composure he was looking for. The man charged with what is becoming an increasingly steep challenge to keep Pompey in the Championship, had just negotiated one of the most testing hours of his managerial career. This was uncharted territory for the 39-year-old. Mousinho had just stared down the barrel as 1,760 justifiably furious supporters vented their fury towards the head coach and his players. Then came the 45-minute dressing room inquest following a numbing 6-1 thrashing at QPR, which had caused fan patience to snap. To subscribe to The Portsmouth News' award-winning Pompey coverage click HERE Incredibly, the man who's put this football club back in the second tier maintained a balance, reasoning and patience to questions fired forth, as the afternoon's shameful events were picked apart. Yet, the eyes were windows to emotions running high inside the Blues head coach. They didn't lie. Where anger had spilled forth a fortnight earlier in response to two precious survival points being thrown away in stoppage time at Blackburn Rovers, Mousinho cut a more reflective figure as he tried to come to terms with events he simply never saw coming. No teacups had been thrown in the away dressing room at Loftus Road, but answers were required and, more importantly, a pathway forward through the wreckage of the six winless games that have seen the wheels fall off Pompey's season in alarming fashion. Mousinho has seen challenging moments in his 37 months at the Fratton helm, he's negotiated embarrassing thrashings, doubt and found solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges. But not like this, not with just eight Championship fixtures remaining to secure survival and not with the fanbase turning. Even through a Stoke City debacle last season and nine answered goals in Bristol City and Birmingham City debacles this term, supporters have remained patient. In the first example Pompey were palpably not equipped for the level, in the latter two there was a sense Mousinho's group were ripe for a battering. Not this time, though. Subscribe for free to watch our latest Pompey Talk videos on our brand new YouTube channel Yet, solutions need to be found amid the soul-searching currently taking place across the international break. Worryingly, recent efforts at solving Pompey's impotence have come up woefully short. Jacob Brown's performance in a withdrawn attacking role against Swansea was scrapped at the interval. Switching the role of his wingers against Derby County showed reasoned thinking, but not the required results. Most concerning was removing Ebou Adams' physicality and drive from the midfield heartland at QPR, leading to a partnership lacking mobility in John Swift and Marlon Pack. As Adams laboured in a more unaccustomed role, Julien Stephan's side waltzed through the middle of the park and clinically feasted on the gifts Pompey afforded them. Memories of capital successes last month with Swift dictating as a 10 and Colby Bishop producing his best displays during the most fallow of periods, made persevering with the QPR experiment difficult to fathom. But Mousinho is a man of action, as he has continually shown in finding leftfield solutions to the challenges of making his team a competitive Championship outfit with basement resources. When repeating the same things over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, can the Pompey boss be criticised for seeking solutions to one point from 18? Some point, with justification, to the lack of options leading to recent decisions from the Pompey boss looking more akin to shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic. Rarely has that metaphor sat more snuggly in this club's testing moments, than it does now. Because, make no mistake, this looks a group careering back into the Championship. This isn't a squad sleepwalking back into the second tier, the players are honest and committed - but appear woefully ill-equipped to deal with the demand of remaining in the division. That's why somehow finding a way for that to happen is comfortably the biggest challenge the man at the Fratton helm has faced in management.