Portsmouth chief delivers strong message of support for Danny Cowley amid supporter criticism

And he has backed his ‘hard-working’ head coach to lead the Blues out of their current worrying League One malaise.

Pompey have claimed just two league wins in more than three months to alarmingly drop out of the promotion hunt.

They topped the table at the end of August – yet now occupy 10th position.

MK Dons represented the latest set-back, with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Fratton Park prompting an uncomfortable reaction from frustrated supporters,

But Cullen has thrown his support behind Cowley, who signed a rolling contract in May 2021 after being appointed permanently.

Pompey’s chief executive told The News: ‘Danny is one of the most conscientious, hard-working managers in the game, who has a shrewd attention to detail and is a top, top coach.

‘If you look throughout his career, he’s had a number of promotions. He has known and tasted success on occasions.

‘In any football club you have some dark moments, the way you get through those is belief and togetherness, with a degree of knowing where you are going and having a plan.

‘These moments are when you support your manager – and that is why we are giving Danny our 100 per cent support. We really believe what we have inside the building will negate what has been a difficult period.

‘Make no mistake, we are all concerned about the last set of results, we all feel it, we all feel the pain and hurt.

‘We have 10 games between now and the end of January, so it’s a really heavy programme and an opportunity to put things right – and we have the belief and confidence in what we’re all trying to achieve,

‘We believe in supporting the manager, there is no quick fix in football and we want to be as supportive as we possibly can.

‘We had a really good start to the season, a huge vibrancy and optimism around us, and there’s no reason to suggest that cannot come back.

‘We have a difficult period at the moment where we need to find a way to win football matches. We will work night and day to support those at the sharp end on the pitch to achieve that.’

Pompey are next in action at Exeter on Boxing Day, striving for a performance to kick-start their season.

Certainly they need to move swiftly on from Saturday’s dismal showing against a struggling MK Dons.

Cullen added: ‘It really is about finding ways to win football matches at the moment.

‘If you take Saturday’s game, we could have been two or three up very, very early on and weren’t.

‘We then conceded a goal from nowhere, one of MK Dons’ first entries into the box, and that is something we have been doing all season. If we can cut those out then we can work through it and win football matches.

‘It’s not one man’s responsibility, we all take collective responsibility here in terms of trying to achieve the best.’