Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley to assess whether to take Manchester City's Gavin Bazunu out of firing line at Accrington

The Manchester City keeper was at fault for the opener in last night’s 4-0 hammering after being caught in possession by Macauley Bonne.

The previous match he fumbled a long-range shot to gift Michael Smith a goal at Rotherham in Saturday’s 4-1 loss.

Bazunu was also exposed for Ipswich’s third, with Sone Aluko’s shot going under him and entering the net, despite the keeper partially stopping it.

Pompey have now slumped in 17th in League One and face a tough trip to Accrtington on Saturday.

And Cowley is making no snap judgements over whether to take Bazunu out of the firing line and bring in Alex Bass.

He told The News: ‘We played backwards too much in the first half, I didn’t think our movement at the top end of the pitch was anywhere near good enough.

‘Sometimes when the movement at the top end is not good enough, the back end can’t find the forward passes and then have to go backwards.

‘We actually broke their press and got out. Unfortunately it went back to Gavin, he was closed down and Macauley Bonne did a good job of blocking his clearance and was able to have the calmness to then finish.

‘Gavin’s a top kid, he’s going to be a top player. He loves his football, it means a lot to him, but he probably has the strongest mentality out of everyone in the group, so he will come through.

‘He’s a top goalkeeper and has been excellent for us. He’s made two mistakes – Rotherham and Tuesday night.

‘We have Accrington next and we need to go away, assess the situation and watch the game.

‘We have to take some learning from it and then find our best foot forward.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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