EXCLUSIVE
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho says that his players must 'deal with the consequences' if they have crossed the line while celebrating.
The Pompey stars hit the town on Tuesday night following a momentous night that saw them earn promotion to the Championship.
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Winning the League One title in the process, fans swarmed onto the pitch at Fratton Park with the club celebrating a return to the second tier after 12 years away.
With fans delighted, players were also let loose to celebrate, however reports have claimed that police in the area after investigating claims of 'theft, criminal damage and racial abuse', while also trashing an O'Neill's pub during the celebrations.
No arrests have been made in relation to the reported incidents, but according to head coach Mousinho, the club intend to take it seriously if any offences have occurred.
Speaking to White & Jordan, Mousinho said: “Obviously we want the lads to celebrate and enjoy themselves but we don’t need to cross any lines.
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“It’s something that we’re looking at as a football club and over the next couple of days we’ll be working with O’Neill’s and any other authorities in Portsmouth to first of all make sure that everybody has behaved as appropriately as they should and if not, all of the lads are big boys and will have to deal with the consequences.
“It’s a really difficult one. I do want the boys to enjoy themselves and celebrate, I just want them to do it in a sensible manner and sometimes that can be difficult but it’s something that we really need to make sure we’re on top of and that we’re respectful in the way we go about everything.”
Those scenes won't detract from the achievement of securing promotion to the Championship though, with Mousinho saying that they're looking to high-flying Ipswich - who top the Championship having been promoted from League One last term - for inspiration.
He said: "Ipswich have set the bar really high – they’ve been unbelievable this season and being in the hunt for automatic promotion at this stage is not actually a surprise because of how good they were last year, how good they’ve been this year.
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“One day If we can do something like that it’d be great but the ambition next year will be to make sure we do consolidate in the league and then really go for it to try and get back to the top.”
Asked if the Premier League is a target, Mousinho added: “It’s a definite possibility with the football club.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves and we want to take things nice and slowly and next year is going to be about consolidation in the Championship.
“It’s a really, really difficult league with lots of brilliant teams in there with former Premier League clubs scattered up and down the league so we have to make sure we don’t waste a year of hard work getting in there.
“Once we build up to going beyond consolidation it’s certainly a dream that everyone at the football club has got and I don’t see why we can’t achieve it.”