It's as critical as Paul Cook has been about his players all season.

The Pompey boss has been very honest about the shortcomings that led to defeat at Doncaster - and about the need to stamp out such habits in future games.

Although Carlisle's loss at Colchester on Saturday means the Blues are still only four points off a top-three spot, the loss at the Keepmoat leaves them a full 10 points behind Rovers, who have now carved out a decent lead at the top.

Cook told The News: 'I’m as disappointed as I have been for a long time. What we can’t do is give them the first goal, that’s the reality. There has been Luton away, Plymouth away, and other games when we have conceded goals early on. We have that within us and it’s unfortunate.

‘My job as manager is to keep working to eradicate them and build a team we all want. ‘However, goals change games and we have that ability to give the opposition that momentum to keep going. It’s an Achilles heel. We do the same things.

‘People have got to remember we started at Grimsby so aggressively and strong and, in the first few minutes, Michael Smith had a one-v-one. At Doncaster all we want to do is pass at the back.

‘It is the same lads who make those decisions and all I can keep doing is banging the drum to them. We recovered from that, we always will, we will always get back in, the lads are never shy. What we are is naive. We make mistakes in possession, we just don’t manage to do the right thing at the right time on occasions.

‘And if you give it away in the middle third against a team who just want to break on you then you are in trouble.’

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