Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley ‘ashamed’ after heavy home defeat to Ipswich

Portsmouth head coach Danny Cowley said he was “ashamed” after his side lost 4-0 at home to Ipswich.

Macauley Bonne, Portsmouth academy graduate Conor Chaplin, Sone Aluko and Wes Burns scored as Pompey conceded four goals for the second game in a row following Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Rotherham.

Cowley said: “I’m disappointed and ashamed. We just capitulated.

“Sorry and apologies after the event mean very little. I don’t think anyone wants to hear me talk too much, sometimes there are no words for a performance like that.

“For 40 minutes it was a competitive game and we were in it.

“A mistake cost us a goal and it was the way we responded that cost us the match, not the mistake.”

Ipswich manager Paul Cook urged his side to keep their feet on the ground after they thrashed his former club.

Cook said: “We just keep going. I know that’s boring, but you just always have to go away, analyse, look at what you do and ask ‘can we get better?’.

“This is a really tough place to go and that was probably as complete a performance as we’ve had all season.

“I’m just so pleased for our supporters who travelled. I said to the players at half time ‘you have to score in front of those fans’.

“You had to give them that momentum that they want to give you to carry you home. We did that in abundance tonight.

“When you go away from home you’ve got to have men all over the pitch. Tonight we had a lot of them.

“My messages stay the same. As I said the other day, you don’t get medals in October. There are no promotions, no relegations. You just stay focussed.

“Tonight we’ve shown we can come to probably one of the toughest away grounds in the country and win. We’ve got to keep that going.”