Portsmouth boss makes admission over recent mistakes as side bid to bury Charlton Athletic woes at Forest Green

The Blues boss acknowledged recent mistakes - both personally and as a team - as his side’s positive start to the season campaign stalled.

But the 43-year-old is adamant he has the determination to get things moving once again, along with a conviction in his players to deliver as they go to Forest Green.

Pompey’s nine-game unbeaten start to the league season has been followed by four matches without a win, which has seen some murmurings of discontent surface among supporters.

Continuing with Connor Ogilvie out of position at right-back has been one of the issues debated of late, with Joe Rafferty sidelined.

Cowley acknowledged the recent frustrations is something he’s felt, but sees the character to put things right - both personally and collectively.

He said: ‘I’ve managed for around 800 games and I’ve had some defeats along the way. It’s part of it.

‘We’ve not had as much progression on the right which I must take responsibility for.

‘It’s for us to try to stay level. One thing in football is you’re not as good as they say you are when it’s going well - and you’re not as bad as they say when it’s not.

‘It’s an emotional game and we live in a hypercritical world.

‘My therapy is to watch the game back and try to take some learning from it.

‘Then I try to help and support the players, while being honest with myself.

‘We’re all human and we all make mistakes. It’s to try to learn from them and not make the same mistakes again.

‘When you work really hard at something, it’s the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about before you go to bed, when you come up short it stinks.

‘It’s a part of being involved in elite sport. You have to be pretty resilient and determined. Luckily I’m both of those things.’

Pompey go into the Forest Green game sat fifth in the table with 14 games now played.

There is a seven-point gap to Sheffield Wednesday in third, although Cowley’s men have two games in hand on their rivals.

It’s trying to get the momentum going once again in what will be their first visit to New Lawn which will be his side’s challenge.

Cowley underlined a conviction he now has the quality at his disposal to do that.

He added: ‘We feel we’re in a good place. We have real belief in ourselves.

‘I don’t really know what’s been said (online), but I know we’re in a much better position in October 2022 than we were on October 2021.

‘We know this and we have real belief in the players.

‘We have real belief in them as people and players.’