Danny Cowley: I take responsibility for Portsmouth defeat at Charlton

The Blues slumped to a 3-0 loss in the televised clash at The Valley, with Ryan Inniss, Corey Blackett-Taylor and Eoghan O’Connell netting for the hosts.

To add to their agony, substitute Michael Jacobs was forced off after just 16 minutes through injury, while Marlon Pack was dismissed in the second half.

It was a display unrecognisable from the side which began the campaign nine matches unbeaten and once topped League One.

Cowley refused to criticise his players in the aftermath of their Charlton humbling, despite a large number failing to perform on the evening.

Instead he took the blame squarely on the chin as the Blues worryingly made it four league matches without victory.

Cowley told The News: ‘Listen, for us it’s always collective. I know you would love me to, but I am not going to sit here and criticise individuals. It’s collective for us, we didn’t do well enough.

‘I take responsibility first and foremost – and there were a lot of performances which didn’t get to the level I would expect of them.

‘There are a lot of boys in that changing room that I respect and I trust, and we were well short this evening.

‘We conceded a really poor first goal, lost our man, you can talk about the defensive set-up but really we just lost our man.

‘It was a short corner, a touch, good cross from (Scott) Fraser, good header from Ryan Inniss, but we can’t lose our man in that moment, we have to defend more aggressively than that.

‘We are a big team, we don’t expect to concede that goal.

‘We didn’t respond well enough, it’s fair to say, and then when you are 2-0 down it can be very tough.

‘That’s not the Pompey we've seen this season, we went nine unbeaten, both home and away showing a really good level of performance.

‘But we were really short at Charlton.’

Pompey next head to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday, albeit minus Marlon Pack, who must serve a one-match ban.

The Blues also await the full details of Jacobs’ latest frustrating injury set-back.

Cowley added: ‘It was a tough night for us, everything which could go wrong, did go wrong.

‘We had a good way into the game, the first 15 minutes we had good control, and then conceded a set-piece goal.

‘Then we have a counter attack, it should be a really good moment for us, but we lose the ball and Charlton are very athletic in that moment, they transitioned through us and scored.

‘When you are 2-0 down you have to risk it a bit and that makes you more vulnerable, particularly against an athletic team which is good in a one-v-one moment.’