Portsmouth boss counts the cost of dramatic Lincoln City win on weary players

The Blues boss felt his team were out on their feet as they took a 3-2 success over Michael Appleton’s side in a five-goal second half.

The clash sprung to life after a sedate first 45 minutes at Fratton Park, with goals from George Hirst and Michael Jacobs cancelled out by Teddy Bishop and Ben House before Ronan Curtis grabbed the winner.

There was obvious flaws in Pompey’s display with chances for more goals not taken and defensive efforts.

But Cowley wasn’t interested in looking too deeply at the faults, with his players in the midst of a busy period of games – and paying the cost for that in his view.

He said: ‘We’re really pleased to win.

‘I think it’s a great outcome after playing on Tuesday.

‘I think we suffered for that.

‘We were nowhere near our best technically and tactically.

‘Sometimes though, the will is more important than the skill and I think we showed determination to find a way of winning.

‘We played with more purpose in the second half and played with more pressure.

‘We started to turn the ball and got a really good place in the game at 2-0.

‘We then conceded a really poor goal and we knew we’d suffer in that last 20 minutes.

‘There’s not a lot you can do when you play these games in close proximity, but we showed a lot of character and a lot of fight.

‘There was a collective will, though, and I think that got us over the line.’

The win came with more injury concerns for Pompey, with Joe Morrell taken off in the first half with a dead leg.

Louis Thompson has a hip issue on top of a hand problem which made him a doubt for the game, along with Marcus Harness and Michael Jacobs.

Cowley felt tiredness rather than players carrying injuries was a factor in his team not performing in periods of the game.

He added: ‘I think all the players looked dead on their feet.

‘We’ve worked to recover them as best we can.

‘We made changes on Tuesday and wanted to go with close to the same team as Tuesday.

‘Sometimes as a coach you can’t win in this situation when the players fatigued.

‘You change the team it disrupts you, you keep it the same and you lack that intensity.’