How Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley tackled disappointment of Papa John's Trophy defeat against Sutton United

The Pompey boss held the discussions as a consequence of the manner of the defeat and to pinpoint areas of improvement required for the Blues’ season to build momentum.

Of the eight fringe players named in the starting line-up for the Papa John’s Trophy fixture, only Louis Thompson did himself any favours.

The rest failed to deliver or provide Cowley with proof that they’re ready to step up and compete for a regular place in his starting XI.

That disappointed the head coach at the final whistle.

And, today, it prompted Cowley to hold private chats with certain members of Tuesday night’s line-up, following the usual team debrief, so that he could guide them through what is expected.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s trip to Rotherham, he said: ‘Tuesday was a difficult night - probably everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

‘Obviously, we picked up three injuries, which didn't help.

‘We had an okay start to the game, then we lost our way.

‘Some of the younger players had a really difficult evening, Haji (Mnoga), Georgey (George Hirst), Gass (Gassan Ahadme), so lots of learning for them to take to from the game.‘This morning, we spoke as a group, reviewed the game as we always do, had individual meetings with four or five of them and that's the way that we work.

‘You can't affect what happened yesterday but you can influence what happens tomorrow so they took some learning and (will) come back better as a consequence.’