Portsmouth manager Danny Cowley not prepared to criticise official after 3-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic

Portsmouth manager Danny Cowley refused to criticise referee Dean Whitestone after their 3-0 defeat at Charlton tonight.

Former Addicks centre-back Michael Morrison was outmuscled by Ryan Inniss for the opening goal.

And Morrison clearly felt he was impeded from challenging for Scott Fraser’s cross.

Portsmouth also saw a pull on Dane Scarlett by Eoghan O’Connell go unpunished in the first period when they only trailed 1-0. But replays showed the Tottenham loanee was offside from the cross, even if that also was not picked up by the officials.

“We let ourselves down tonight,” said Cowley. “We let our supporters down. We have to suffer, feel the pain and take some time to reflect and learn, then try to move forward.

“I’m not going to stand here and complain about referees’ performances when our performances as staff and players wasn’t good enough. We look at ourselves first and foremost.

“The focus is on us first when our performances are not good enough. We were well short.

“It was a tough night for us. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. We’ve picked up a sending off and three injuries to boot.

“We concede from a set-piece which is disappointing and then we concede quite quickly again. We have a counter-attack and it should be a really good moment for us, we lose the ball and they are very athletic in that moment, transitioned through us and scored.

“Then you have to risk a little bit and that makes you more vulnerable against an athletic team who are good in the one-v-one moments.

“In the last three games we’ve probably not found the same level of performance and, as a result, we’ve not got the outcomes we’ve wanted.

“We’ll stay level. We didn’t get too high when we had a really good start. We won’t get too low now. We’ll be disappointed tonight but we’ll learn and we’ll move forward.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD