How does he turn it around? Portsmouth boss on what's next as fans call for his head after grim Charlton Athletic loss

The Blues boss believes his team have to show the appetite for the fight they face to turn their season around.

The grim 3-1 Charlton Athletic loss makes it nine league games without a win and a single success in 14 in League One.

That led to fans turning against the Cowley in the wake of one of the bleakest afternoons at Fratton Park in recent seasons.

Cowley feels he and his players have to keep looking for ways to put that run to bed and arrest their fall down the League One table.

He said: ‘It’s not easy at the moment.

‘We have to go back to the training pitch and affect the things we can affect.

‘We have to keep training and I suppose identify the things which are costing us results.

‘Then we have to get on the training pitch and work.

‘In elite sport success doesn’t have always happen in a straight line, in elite sport we know there is adversity.

‘In these moments you learn all about yourself.

‘You have two choices, you become the victim or you become the fighter.’

Cowley pinpointed the mistakes for both of Charlton’s first goals as key moments in the game, as Pompey conceded possession cheaply.

The 43-year-old changed formation to a 4-4-2 from a 3-4-1-2 approach and then made a triple change at the break.

He stated he won’t hide from making similar sizable calls in an effort to turn things around.

Cowley added: ‘We lost our confidence early on and made some technical errors.

‘This affected the belief and confidence in the group.

‘That then affected the energy and intensity we would like to play with.

‘We were really short.

‘We didn’t have Clark Robertson going into the game and wanted to be more offensive.

‘It was a game we wanted to win.

‘We made some changes to the starting XI and we tried to influence it at half-time, because even though we’d equalised we were really disappointed with the quality of our first-half display.

‘We started the second half with a little bit impetus, but lose the ball and concede a second goal.

‘That took a lot out of us and we were unable to respond.’