Men all over the pitch: Ipswich Town boss Paul Cook on burying Portsmouth on Fratton return

Former Pompey boss Paul Cook saw his Ipswich Town side thrash Pompey last night.

The former Blues boss saluted the fact he had ‘men all over the pitch’ as his players flexed their muscle and put Danny Cowley’s side to the sword with a 4-0 battering.

Another slew of defensive errors condemned Pompey to their second four-goal battering in succession on a bleak night at Fratton Park.

But Cook was cock-a-hoop on a high watermark for his eight-month tenure at Portman Road.

He told the East Anglian Daily Times: ‘We just keep going. I know that's boring, but you just always have to go away, analyse, look at what you do and ask 'can we get better?'

‘This is a really tough place to go and that was probably as complete a performance as we've had all season.

‘I'm just so pleased for our supporters who travelled. I said to the players at half-time “you have to score in front of those fans”. You had to give them that momentum that they want to give you to carry you home. We did that in abundance tonight.

‘When you go away from home you've got to have men all over the pitch. Tonight we had a lot of them.

‘We've got a striker that's red-hot, we've got a number 10 in Chaplin who is so infectious in everything he does and around that lads are growing.’

On a night when the pressure increased on Cowley as his side made it just one win in their past 12, Cook spoke about the focus he’s been under as the big spenders endured a difficult start to the season.

Ipswich, however, are now on a run of one defeat in eight and moved up to 13th with the win - five points off the play-offs.

Cook added: ‘A lot gets written and a lot gets said. We've got a lot of new staff and players. How long does it take to change cultures at football clubs? There are some things you can't do in a short space of time.

‘Unfortunately for all football managers now we get judged so quick nowadays and it's not right.

‘I just stay level-headed and keep going. Now all my attentions are on Fleetwood because if we beat them on Saturday the table suddenly looks a lot different and our supporters get happy. That's the most important thing, our owners and our supporters.’