The pattern Danny Cowley has to end as Portsmouth face frantic finale against Bolton Wanderers, Lincoln City, Rotherham United, Wigan Athletic & Co

Danny Cowley admitted he has to find the solutions to Pompey’s slow response to stoppages in the season.
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The Blues boss is demanding a strong finish from his team as the League One campaign reaches a climax.

And Cowley is clear he has to find the remedy to his side reacting poorly to pauses in the fixture programme to do so.

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That’s as a result of the international break and Rotherham making the Papa John’s Trophy final, meaning new dates needed to be found for clashes with the Millers and Bolton.

The stoppage means a frenetic period of eight games in 25 days lies in wait, with Cowley operating with a slimline squad to tackle that period.

Poor results have followed international breaks in the season to date, with five games without a win ensuing in September and a run of three games without success the following month.

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Pompey, of course, were flying before Covid paused the season in December and were nine league games unbeaten.

Pompey were defeated by MK Dons at Fratton amid a poor run of form after Covid again paused the season.Pompey were defeated by MK Dons at Fratton amid a poor run of form after Covid again paused the season.
Pompey were defeated by MK Dons at Fratton amid a poor run of form after Covid again paused the season.

They were unable to replicate that at the start of 2022, however, with six league games without a win damaging their play-off ambitions.

Now Cowley knows what has to be achieved when the League One games recommence at the University of Bolton Stadium a week on Tuesday.

He said: ‘We anticipated the two-and-a-half week break in the season and then eight games in 25 days.

‘They are all challenges.

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‘We could waste time and energy moaning about this, or put our energy into trying to find solutions.

‘We’re also training hard in that period.

‘We’ve had breaks in our season so far and we didn’t come out of those breaks as well as we’d like.’

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