'We just went under ... and I’m the one who has to take responsibility for that.' That was Danny Cowley's frank assessment after Pompey capitulated to lose 4-1 at Rotherham.

It was 1-1 10 minutes into the second half after Marcus Harness cancelled out Michael Smith's opener - before the Millers scored three in seven minutes to send Pompey home with their tails between their legs. It left Pompey 12th, with improving Ipswich coming to Fratton on Tuesday night.

Cowley told the media: 'For 55 minutes I thought we had a really good place in the game and it’s ended up being a disappointing day for us. We were unlucky to go in 1-0 down at the break because we had played with a good rhythm and were in control.

'There were five or six moments when we got into dangerous areas and were just missing that execution. But we gave away too many crosses and knew that would be a threat because of Smith peeling away. We weren’t able to stop that.

'Our response was good and we came out a better team after the break. We scored and you thought we would really push on. Then we conceded a bad goal. Gavin has been excellent up to this point and he made a mistake, which happens.

'But our response from that was well short — the durability and substance you need in those difficult moments wasn’t there. You can’t concede three times in seven minutes — you just can’t. We have to look at that and learn from it to try to get better.

'We need qualities like grit and determination from within. We’re not very good when things go against us at the moment — we can’t find the answers. Rotherham didn’t have loads of chances and we didn’t defend well enough. Credit to them because they showed us what 'good' looks like in League One.'

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