Bitter-sweet evening for Clark Robertson as Portsmouth skipper makes Blues return in 'disappointing' Carabao Cup defeat to Newport County

Yet, it was a bittersweet evening for the Blues skipper as he made a return to the starting line-up for the first time this season.

The central defender made his first outing of the campaign in the 3-2 defeat after he was sidelined with a foot injury for the opening six games of the term.

As Cowley rang the changes at Rodney Parade, a Ronan Curtis double wasn’t enough to secure Pompey’s place in the third round.

Robertson admitted his side were poor across the pitch and claimed it was a ‘disappointing’ evening for the Blues.

He told The News: ‘Personally, it was good to get back on the pitch and I enjoyed being back out there - there’s nothing worse than being injured.

‘From a team point of view, we weren’t really at it, especially in the second half, we didn’t have any rhythm in our game, we didn’t have any control and ultimately paid the price.

‘I think we were about 100mph even when we had the ball. We needed to be more calm and composed on the ball and look after it a bit better.

‘We didn’t cause them any issues in the second half, they were comfortable and we didn’t stay in their half long enough to have that sustained pressure. It’s a disappointing night for us.’

Pompey quickly return to league action on Saturday as Cowley’s men make their first trip to Port Vale for more than 20 years.

Robertson insists the Blues must bounce back from the defeat at Rodney Parade to maintain their unbeaten run in League One.

He continued: It’s a bad night for us, the way we’ve started the season the standards we’ve set in the first six games, we know we’re much better than that and it’s up to us as players to bounce back on that on Saturday.

‘You never like to lose games and that’s the case tonight.

‘We were unbeaten in all competitions until tonight and it’s important we bounce back and show what we’re all about and show our character in order to get a good result on Saturday.’