Former Rotherham United defender's message to Portsmouth team-mates ahead of return to old stomping ground

Sean Raggett warned Pompey there’s no time to linger on their Papa John’s Trophy disappointment.
Pompey defender Sean RaggettPompey defender Sean Raggett
Pompey defender Sean Raggett

The defender demanded his team-mates put their insipid showing against League Two new boys Sutton United quickly to bed, after last night’s 2-0 loss.

Danny Cowley’s side are on the brink of exiting this year’s competition with their second group loss on the spin.

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Raggett made it clear his side’s failure to find any fluency should not be swept under the carpet, and there will be an inquest into what went wrong at Fratton Park.

But with a trip to his old side, in-form Rotherham United quickly looming on the horizon, the levels have to swiftly return to those reached in the last league outing when Sunderland were given a 4-0 beating.

Cowley said: ‘We have to put this to bed quickly.

‘We have to take some learning from what happened, of course.

‘It was a big win against Sunderland in our last league game.

‘We wanted to build on that momentum here against Sutton.

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‘We didn’t quite do that, so we have to take learning but then quickly put this to bed and have a positive feeling going into Saturday.

‘When you’re emotional after games it’s not always the best time to analyse too deeply.

‘I’m not saying ignore what happened, but you do need to take the learning and put it to bed.

‘Then it’s focussing on Saturday and moving forward to Rotherham.’

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Arguably as big a blow as the result last night was the potential injuries picked up, with a trio of players withdraw as Pompey finished with 10 men.

Haji Mnoga suffered a dead leg, Ellis Harrison left the ground in a boot after injuring his ankle while Paul Downing is fearing the worst after picking up another hamstring injury.

Raggett added: ‘I don’t know how bad the boys are, we’ll have to wait.

‘If they are all out they’re going to be big losses, but we have to just wait and see.’

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