Tom Naylor apologised to the 733 Pompey fans who made the long and thankless trip to north to Accrington.
Many of them stood uncovered on the terraces – faced with rain and strong winds – to watch their side crash to a 4-1 defeat.
Ronan Curtis had headed the visitors in front, but Stanley were on top for most of the contest and ultimately won at a canter.
And Naylor knows the Blues have no time to feel sorry for themselves, with games against the top two lying ahead.
Pompey’s skipper said: “It’s extremely disappointing and you have to say that we weren’t good enough all over the pitch.
“We gave the ball away and didn’t get close enough to their runners, so it was really frustrating for us.
"we have to apologise to the fans for the result and the performance, and we appreciate their fantastic support as always."
“When we went 1-0 up you thought we’d go on to win the game and we did have some chances to do that.
“The own-goal killed us right before half-time and it was unfortunate, but now we need to bounce back.
“I’m sure we’ll do that because we’ve always done it in the past and there are a lot of games coming up now.
“But we have to apologise to the fans for the result and the performance, and we appreciate their fantastic support as always.
“I know they’ll stick by us through thick and thin, and we have to try to get things right against Ipswich and Wycombe.”
Pompey were forced to change their entire back-line at the Crown Ground, but Naylor did not want to use that as an excuse.
He said: “It’s not ideal, but you have to deal with things better than that and we should have defended better all over the pitch. We need to learn from that.”