Jackett: I can understand Pompey fans' fury

The Blues fell to a wretched 2-0 defeat on Saturday, to a struggling Blackpool side, who’d won just two league games in their past 16.

Jackett’s side could have no complaints at the defeat, as they struggled for penetration and were undone by defensive lapses.

The sight of fans leaving en-masse before the final whistle is one rarely seen at Fratton Park, but dispirited supporters exited in their droves with plenty of the match still to play.

Those who remained made their feelings known at the end of a dreadful afternoon which saw play-off talk placed firmly on the backburner.

With hopes high of producing back-to-back wins which would’ve injected impetus in the season, Jackett stated he could see why supporters were downcast.

He said: ‘I understand that (fans’ frustrations) 100 per cent.

‘This was game 12, if you like. There’s 12 games to go and we’re all waiting for the big push for the play-offs.

‘As the weeks go on, and I know looking at the table it will still be there, but we can’t lose players at the rate we currently are and necessarily expect to dominate.

‘Supporters have quite rightly turned up like last year hoping the big push is coming towards promotion.

‘We had a big chance in the second half with Lowe which went wide, but as the game went on it looked like we could’ve played all night and we wouldn’t have scored.

‘We had a lot of the ball and play, but they were happy to let us sit in front of them.

‘It looked like they were queueing up to score the second at the back post.

‘In that final period when you want to be coming back at then it didn’t look like happening. We wanted a big finish but probably had too many bodies missing in the final third of the pitch.

‘We couldn’t get our tempo going and, in the end, they did the job. They had genuine power in attacking areas. More power than we had.’

It was a Pompey performance with faults at both ends of the pitch, but Jackett’s annoyance focussed on attacking areas for his side.

The Pompey boss feels it’s important now, however, not to linger on the display.

Jackett said: ‘Good sides don’t make mistakes – and we did.

‘My overall frustration, though, is going forward, not being able to get into the game and do enough with the ball in an attacking sense. It’s frustrating.

‘The players have given everything they’ve got as a group.

‘They have to make sure their heads don’t go down.

‘We’re in a period where we’ve won one and lost one, so they have to keep their heads up and go again.

‘We can’t lose confidence. It can’t be (damaging). We have to realise where we are, learn from it, be better and go again.’