Portsmouth defender delivers brutally honest verdict on alarming concern after Sheffield United woes
Pompey fell to a 3-0 defeat to Sheffield United on Thursday evening.
Regan Poole has admitted he is unsure why Pompey are being hindered by corners.
But the central defender has stressed the Blues’ weakness has to be sorted as defensive frailties continue to hamper John Mousinho’s men.
Set pieces have been a real conundrum for the head coach this term, with Pompey being cut open by Coventry City Birmingham City, Hull City and Millwall in recent weeks. .
The contest’s defining moment saw Terry Devlin sent off after denying Japhet Tanganga’s header with his hand from a corner on the goal-line.
With Mousinho’s troops a man down at the break, the Blades extended their advantage 10 minutes into the second half as Patrick Bamford bundled the ball home from another set piece.
The Blues were unable to make any in-roads back into the fixture, with set-piece mistakes letting Pompey down once again.
And Poole hasn’t shied away from the questions which are being raised over the Blues’ defending in corners, which are proving to be an achilles heel to Mousinho side.
The ‘massive problem’ hindering Pompey
He told The News: ‘It’s a massive problem. We conceded another two tonight.
‘It’s something that needs to be nipped in the bud otherwise you’ve never got a chance to win games when you’re conceding corners left, right and centre.
‘What the problem is I don’t know, I would love to be able to tell you. We are losing too many first contacts and the ball is going in the back of the net really. End of. It needs to be sorted.
‘First goal tonight, we tried going into a line and he ended up escaping. It’s something that we need to nip in the bud early otherwise every set piece is going to be a problem. We needed to get it sorted.
‘It’s a huge concern, we’ve conceded a lot recently. At the start of the season we didn’t concede too many. Norwich at home we conceded two but at the moment it’s a huge concern.
‘There’s no hiding behind that, we need to sort it. The only goals we’re conceding are set pieces so that can’t happen.
‘As a centre-half that’s not what I want, it’s not what the team wants and it needs to be sorted otherwise we’re going to be playing catch up.’
Pompey verdict on Sheffield United defeat
Pompey kept the hosts at bay until Devlin’s red card before the break, before a second-half onslaught saw Sheffield United control proceedings to pick up successive wins.
‘It’s a tough one. We were fully in the game at 0-0 up until the 40th minute and then a tough one to take with Terry. I feel a bit sorry for him because it’s another set piece, which is letting us down.
‘Obviously, it’s tough when you are down to 10 men but in the first half we were fully in the game and we shot ourselves in the foot.
‘We’d done a good job at killing the atmosphere early, we done well there. We were pretty poor in our decision making in the final third, we had so many chance to make them defend and we didn’t.
‘Up until the 40th minute we were fully in the game and they didn’t have many chances. We defended the box well and we let them off the hook when we were going forward.’