PORTSMOUTH boss John Mousinho reckons Millwall will “certainly finish in the top six” this season after his side beat the Lions 3-1 at The Den.

Pompey overcame an uncharacteristically poor home performance from Millwall to leave SE16 with a vital three points to put distance between themselves and the drop zone, thanks to goals from Gustavo Cabellero, John Swift and Marlon Pack.

The result was the Lions’ first home loss in over two months and just their second league defeat since Christmas.

“Millwall are a very good side, put in some very good performances consistently this year, and I think are definitely up there,” Mousinho said. “Will certainly finish in the top six, in my opinion. To a man, we put in a great display.”

Mousinho was asked why he backed Millwall to make the play-offs.

“Alex probably wouldn’t like me saying that, but I think they’re an excellent side that is very well structured and very well organised,” Mousinho said. “We’ve watched a number of games coming into this game. Beating Wrexham away from home, not many sides have done that. Wrexham have gone to beat Ipswich today.

“The one that was most impressive was the Watford game. We watched that in the build-up to our game against Watford and thought on the day they caused a very good side a lot of problems, and we’ve seen that time and time again this season. I could probably keep naming games. We watched the Charlton game here as well. So for us to be able to do that today was great.”

Mousinho was also asked how he thought his side handled Millwall’s joint-top scorer this season, Femi Azeez.

“We obviously highlighted how good he has been throughout the season, but look across the entire line-up,” Mousinho said. “Ivanovic seems to score against us every time he plays, or certainly did last season. He had a brilliant year last year.

“If you look across the front line, just to pick out a few, they’ve got Azeez, Ivanovic, Neghli, who I think is a very, very good player playing as a ten, and one of the most promising young talents playing on the left as well. So threats all over the pitch.

“Really pleased with the way we dealt with Azeez, but also very pleased with the way we dealt with all of the threats across the top end of the pitch, but also set-plays, the threat that Crama poses from right back. It was pleasing. I do think it’s important to stress how good a side I think Millwall are.”