Winger adamant Portsmouth players gave all in promotion bid

And the Blues winger believes he and his team-mates can reflect on a gruelling campaign with pride.

The curtain came down on the season last Thursday with a disappointing play-off defeat to Sunderland.

The manner of the loss had some supporters blaming the hammer blow on a lack of effort from Kenny Jackett’s men - a view Lowe emphatically rejects.

He said: ‘We’ve given our all throughout the season. For it to end like it did hurts.

‘The boys have to be proud, though, of the effort they’ve put in all year.

‘It has been a great season and that is something to be proud of.

‘In the grand scheme of things we had a great year and played some good football.

‘We had an amazing trip to Wembley which was successful.

‘It’s not how we wanted the season to end, but maybe in a couple of days we can look back on it as a season to be proud of.’

Lowe pointed to the individual achievements of Jackett’s squad as something they can reflect on positively.

He added: ‘In a couple of days we can reflect on the highs and lows of the season.

‘We can think about what we did right and what went wrong - and put that right.

‘A lot of the players if not all of them can say they’ve done something to be proud of.

‘The amount of games Matt Clarke has played consecutively, the amount of clean sheets Craig (MacGillivray) picked up

‘A lot of the lads played 50-plus games and it’s been Ronan’s (Curtis) breakthrough season.

‘Gareth Evans has got to double figures (for goals) and Ben Close nearly reached it.

‘Hawks (Hawkins) and Pits (Pitman) hit double figures, too. These are things to be proud of.’