Danny Cowley is looking for a response when Pompey host promotion-chasing Rotherham this evening.
A poor display at Cheltenham was understandably met with frustration from those fans who made the trip to Whaddon Road.
So it looks a daunting prospect to follow that up by facing a side in the League One title race who recently celebrated lifting silverware at Wembley.
But Cowley wants his men to produce a more encouraging performance to improve the mood of the Fratton faithful
The Blues boss said: “We were obviously disappointed on Saturday because we let ourselves down and we let our supporters down.
“We’re professionals and wake up every day wanting to be the very best that we can be, so it hurts when we don’t get there.
“But now we have a great opportunity to respond against a Rotherham side who have been at or near the top of the table all season.
“We’re really motivated to try to put in a positive performance in front of our own fans at Fratton Park.
“The league table doesn’t lie, but we have six games remaining – with four of them at home – and want to finish the season strongly.
"We’re professionals and wake up every day wanting to be the very best that we can be, so it hurts when we don’t get there."
“We’re looking forward to getting back to Fratton Park and want to produce a performance we can be proud of.”
Rotherham have been leading the pack for much of the season and will be looking to halt a recent run of patchy form that has seen them drop to third in the standings.
Cowley said: “They’ve been incredibly consistent and have just come off the back of winning the Papa John’s Trophy at Wembley.
“It’s a physical team, who are incredibly fit and athletic. They want to run over you and play with a really high intensity, looking to have wave after wave of attack.
“You have to be good enough to stand up to that test and then try to exploit the spaces that will leave.”
Pompey are on a busy run that sees them end the campaign with eight fixtures in the space of just 25 days.
Cowley said: “We played Cheltenham on Saturday and then have games on Tuesday, Friday, Monday, so they’re coming along very quickly.
“You would want a settled team and we probably had to make more changes than we would have liked at the weekend.
“The good news is that we’ve got everyone available – bar those with long-term injuries – to face Rotherham.”