Portsmouth boss addresses Sean Raggett situation - and the future of ex-Wolves and Ipswich midfielder

John Mousinho has explained Sean Raggett’s Lincoln absence - and addressed the defender’s future.

The centre-half was surprisingly left out of Saturday’s squad for the 2-0 success at Sincil Bank which marked a winning end to an outstanding season.

He had previously featured in every Pompey League One match since October’s 3-2 victory at Reading, while finished runner-up in The News/Sports Mail’s Player Of The Season vote.

Ryley Towler was instead handed Raggett’s first-team spot - and proceeded to put in a man-of-the-match display against the Imps.

Raggett, of course, is out of contract this summer following five years on the south coast and Mousinho was afterwards asked about the defender’s situation.

He told The News: ‘I wanted to see Ryley and Conor (Shaughnessy) play together and I wanted to see Conor on the right-hand side which is why Sean wasn’t involved.

‘He wasn’t in the squad because we’ve gone with really attacking benches over the last few weeks, so haven’t had centre-halves on the bench. Ryley hasn’t been on the bench for the past two weeks because Connor (Ogilvie) can cover two positions.

‘Had we picked up an injury across the back four, Connor would be able to cover two of those positions. Everything was focused on trying to win a game of football.

‘In terms of Sean’s future, we'll speak to all the boys on Monday.

‘When the dust settles, we will make the final decisions on Sunday evening and then go with that on Monday and have meetings. The retained list will then be out there.’

Another absence from the 18-man squad was Lee Evans, who started the 3-2 success over Barnsley which won the League One title two games earlier.

The former Wolves and Ipswich man is also among the 14 players out of contract and now waiting to learn their Fratton futures.

Mousinho added: ‘In terms of what we have seen from Lee, we have seen everything we need to see from him.

‘We just needed to see Tom (Lowery) and Tino (Anjorin), that was a bit of a mixture of everything really in terms of what we wanted to get out of Saturday.

‘We have made a couple of decisions there that, had we needed something from the game, maybe we wouldn't have made - but we always knew going into the match that we’d have a very, very strong side.’