Former Sunderland man reveals Portsmouth dressing room reaction to Danny Cowley’s sacking - and what was missing

And the former Sunderland man has praised the Blues for the manner in which they’ve dealt with Danny Cowley’s sacking in a tumultuous week at Fratton Park.

Pompey dug deep at Spurs in their 1-0 FA Cup loss, with Hume pointing to the work put into the build-up to the game as key to the display.

He feels the occasion was a key one for the Blues with confidence hit during their recent struggles.

Hume said: ‘It was a really important day for the football club.

‘It’s always a tough week when a manager and staff leave.

‘I think the boys have dealt with it really well and we had a good week of training to prepare for the game.

‘That’s all you can do when something like that happens, work as hard as you can in training and be ready for the games when they come.

‘From our point of view all we could do is concentrate on the games and concentrate on the day-to-day training.

‘The pressure of playing for this club is a lot and so are the expectations.

‘The fans expect a lot of you, but that is part of playing for this club.

‘But the boys really stuck at it and I think everyone saw that we are still together.

‘So it’s now for us to make sure we’re at it every game and pick up the results we need.

‘A big part of football is confidence and I think that’s been something we’ve lacked over the past couple of months.

‘When that’s the case it’s really important the boys stick together.

‘Fortunately, we’ve got a really together group and we back each other.

‘When you do that you will get more luck and you will eventually score more goals and win games. That’s what we need to do now.

‘For any team the starting point is working hard and giving your all for each other.

‘You use that as a platform to build - that’s what we will look to do now.’

The 8,880 travelling Pompey fans could be proud of their team’s performance as they stood toe to toe with Spurs.

With their backing and the display produced it made for an occasion which can set the tone for the Blues moving forward.

Hume added: ‘The amount of fans we brought up here is testament to this club and its size.

‘The boys were really appreciative of that, and hopefully the boys were able to do them proud with the performance.

‘I thought the boys were different class, to be fair to them.

‘They were clearly big favourites coming into the game, but I felt we held our own.

‘They are a world-class players, so obviously you are going to be limited in terms of chances but going in at half-time the boys were happy.

‘We got done by a world-class goal from a world-class striker.

‘When we set up like we did, it’s important you are able to get out at some point when it’s attack after attack - and I felt we were able to do that.

‘We now need to take that on in the after cup and league at Bolton.’