John Mousinho on naming ex-Cardiff and Bristol City man as Portsmouth's new skipper - 13 years after being Wycombe team-mates

Now one of John Mousinho’s first acts as Pompey head coach has been to install his former playing colleague as captain.

Marlon Pack and the former central defender spent two-and-a-half months together at Wycombe in the 2009-10 season.

The midfielder from Buckland was aged 18 at the time and handed his Football League debut in September 2009 – with Mousinho in the same team.

They now find themselves at Fratton Park together, with Pack, these days aged 31, marking Pompey's captaincy by scoring in Saturday’s 2-0 triumph over Exeter.

Mousinho told The News: ‘At Wycombe, Marlon was a young lad on loan from Pompey. He did really well for us and has obviously gone off to have a brilliant career after that.

‘He was a really good player even back then, not quite as vocal, but always an outgoing personality.

‘Obviously I haven’t seen him develop as a team-mate or as a coach, but I’ve followed his career and, all of a sudden, bang, it’s in front of you, you’ve got a leader there.

‘Marlon speaks really well, cares about the club and leads the team. It was magnificent to see him do that on Saturday.

‘We appointed him for obvious reasons. He’s a Pompey lad, it means a huge amount to him, and also to give him a bit of lift. By Marlon’s own admission, he wants to do more for the club, he wants to perform better, even if he feels the pressure of it.

‘I looked at it and thought there’s two ways to go, either the captaincy becomes too much for him or lifts his game – and thankfully, in this instance, it lifted his game.

‘I don’t want to sound too cliched, but we need more of that whether he has the captain’s armband or not and that’s massively important for me.

‘Clark (Robertson) is still club captain. He is out injured, so it’s great to have four or five leaders in the club that can take the captain's armband.

‘Marlon was just a decision on the day. I spoke to everyone about it and people said it might be a good decision, so it was a contribution from everyone.’

Pack wasn’t the sole midfielder to net against Exeter - there was also a maiden Pompey goal for Joe Morrell.

Earlier, on his 58th appearance for the club, he failed to convert Ronan Curtis’ pass, much to the Fratton faithful’s disbelief.

But he finally registered on 74 minutes, albeit with a helping hand from opposition keeper Jamal Blackman.

Mousinho added: ‘If you look at Joe’s first chance, I have no problem with that at all, it’s a technical error.

‘It’s not something that he’s done deliberately and, for me, the best thing was he was in that position, so it doesn't matter if he missed it.

‘Yes, we’d like to see him score more of those than he misses - but he then deserved it with a different finish for the second one.’