‘It’s horrible when you feel that you’ve let people down’
DANNY COWLEY admitted he felt he’d let Pompey supporters down as their League One play-off bid crashed at the final hurdle.
And the Blues’ head coach acknowledged his players failed to show enough bravery as they let a top-six finish slip from their grasp.
The 1-0 defeat at home to Accrington yesterday was a hugely deflating way to end the season as Pompey’s players once again came up short when it mattered most.
A crestfallen Cowley acknowledged what his players produced when it counted wasn’t good enough – and he felt responsible for that.
He said: ‘I’m bitterly disappointed and it’s always horrible when you feel that you’ve let people down.
‘We all in the dressing room have to take responsibility and ownership for that.
‘We wanted to be the best version of ourselves, and we certainly weren’t that in the first half.
‘We didn’t play with any bravery and, to be brutally honest, we could have been two goals down at half-time.
‘In the second half we had more control and rhythm in our play and tried to get the players to be braver.
‘But when you’re a new group, a young group and you’re changing the way you play, when the pressure comes on if you don’t have the competency or the confidence in that way of playing, it can find you out.
‘If we’re brutally honest when the pressure came on, we didn’t play with enough bravery. That’s disappointing.’
Former Lincoln and Huddersfield boss Cowley’s 12 matches as Pompey head coach have resulted in six wins, two draws and four defeats.