Boss reflects on Orient defeat
Paul Cook admitted that his side were simply not good enough against Leyton Orient.
It took a stunning second half strike from Jobi McAnuff to separate the sides at a blustery Fratton Park.
But the hosts could arguably count themselves lucky to only end up suffering a one-goal defeat against their promotion rivals.
And Cook knows that there needs to be a reaction when high-flying Bristol Rovers visit the south coast next Saturday.
The Blues boss said: “I thought Orient were excellent and continuously caused us problems – we were second best.
“They must take credit for their performance, while we have to go away and lick our wounds because we never got going.
“It was a flat display from us at a crucial stage of the season, so I have to take the criticism for that.
“You can’t take any positives from that and we have to regroup and make sure that we come back stronger.
“We always knew that it wouldn’t just be instant success when we came in at the start of the season.
“It’s a long season and there are plenty of highs and lows – the previous Saturday we were leaving the ground with plaudits ringing in our ears.
“The reality is that there are other good teams in this league and on this occasion we came up against one who were better than us.
“We’re all deeply, deeply disappointed and now it’s all how about how we react to that.”
Recent loan arrival Kieron Freeman was handed a debut for Pompey in place of Ben Davies at right-back.
Cook explained: “Ben has been fantastic for us, but he’s played a lot of games lately and we wanted to add some freshness to the team.”
Watch the manager’s thoughts on the game below or subscribe to Pompey PlayerHD for full post-match coverage.