Louis Thompson left Portsmouth for Stevenage because he would get more games admitted John Mousinho.

The Pompey boss had considered giving the 28-year-old a new contract after two seasons at Fratton Park but ultimately he admitted it was unlikely he would get as many outings as he would have wanted.

And the south coast gaffer felt it was selfish to expect him to stay, with the move to the Lamex Stadium proving the right choice so far, Thompson having started all four of Boro's League One games so far this year.

Speaking to the Portsmouth News, Mousinho said: "Louis was great to have around the dressing room and one of those senior leaders.

"He’s played a long time now and seen most things, he was always good to lean on and kept his attitude brilliant all the way through, even when he wasn’t playing games.

"We considered offering a new deal and the initial conversation was that if he wanted to stay around and have a similar role to last year, then we might be able to sort something out.

"The answer was what we expected to hear – Louis wanted to push himself and play a lot more games.

"Him leaving was a difficult decision because, selfishly, part of us would have liked to keep Louis around.

"Ultimately, though, the question to him was do you want to play 30-50 games next year and the answer was yes.

"We didn’t want to hold him back and [our reply] was it’s not going to be here, even though we’d love to have you around.

"Louis made five starts under me and came off the bench six times, but the midfield competition was difficult with Joe Morrell, Marlon Pack, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Tom Lowery, so tough for him to cement his place in the team.

"That was one of the reasons why we shook hands in the summer and parted company.

"We knew there’d be plenty of interest and loads of clubs and managers called me about him because of his attitude, the way he had gone about his business and his footballing ability."