Dust ourselves down and go again - former Portsmouth and Wigan boss Paul Cook is back with Ipswich

And the former Pompey boss’ post-match interview struck a familiar chord after the 3-1 reverse at Priestfield on Saturday.

Cook often spoke about the need to ‘go again’ and ‘just keep going’ after a negative result in his time at the helm at Fratton Park.

And his words on Saturday will ring bells for many Blues fans, with echoes of his tenure at PO4.

Cook told the EADT: I don't think Gillingham away was the best one for my first game!

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‘I told Steve (Evans) beforehand that he had a day off with me today. I'm shattered after the two days I've had

‘Fair play to Gillingham, I thought they deserved to win the game. They were very strong, very physical, played the game in a really strong manner and I thought they deserved to win. So my congratulations to them.

‘Listen, I'm not going to start dissecting the game. I've just said that to the lads. The games are coming so thick and fast that you don't have time to make excuses as to why you get beat. When we get back to Ipswich we'll look back at the game and ways of how we can get better.

‘I think the 5-10 minutes after we equalised was probably the only time in the game where we probably looked like we were in the ascendency and could go on and win.

‘Then we conceded a goal, possibly against the run of play, if you like, at that little moment. But for long spells Gillingham were the more aggressive team and the better team, so it's a really disappointing day for us

‘Gillingham were the stronger team and looked more of a threat, if you like, without both teams creating chances. It wasn't a great game of football in any shape or form.

‘As I say, you don't have time nowadays. You dust yourselves down. We've got Lincoln and Plymouth at home now. It's straight onto the next one.

‘Every club has a bad day, and sometimes when you have a bad day everything looks really bad. The most important thing is that the next day becomes a good one.

‘So what we must do is lick our wounds, accept it's a bad day and hope that the next bad day isn't going to be for a period of time. The most important thing is that we bounce back on Tuesday night.’

A message from the editor

On Saturday, March 13 Pompey will finally get their day at Wembley.

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