'We haven't had the quality': Portsmouth boss' brutal assessment of where his team have failed

And the Blues boss has outlined the level of detail he puts into that area of his team’s game as they belatedly find some deadball threat.

Cowley’s side have scarcely threatened from corners and free-kick routines this term.

Connor Ogilvie’s header from a corner against Morecambe last month was a rare example of a goal from a corner, before Sean Raggett’s effort against Burton Albion last week.

That was followed by Reeco Hackett’s late free-kick being headed in by Raggett against Doncaster.

That’s improved the ratio of finishes from such opportunities for the Blues, after being at a disappointing level for much of the season.

Cowley said: ‘We haven’t scored enough from restarts.

‘My teams always score from restarts.

‘We work incredibly hard in that area and I think it’s a really easy area to work on.

‘We haven’t had the quality in our delivery, if I’m brutally honest up until now.

‘We got the delivery right on Tuesday and Saturday.

‘Against Burton, I think eight of our 19 chances came direct from a restart or from second phase. That’s a positive.’

Cowley believes there’s no excuses for Pompey not to have delivered a better set-piece return this season - especially given the work being put in to get that area of the game spot on.

He added: ‘Set-pieces are very simple: get the delivery right

‘If you get the quality in the delivery, then you get good routines which suit the profile of players you have at your disposal.

‘If they are fast players they get across the front. If they are big physical players it might be at the back.

‘Then get the timing and arriving right, which comes from communication with the taker and the boys who are attacking the ball.

‘You need to work really hard on that communication then timing and arriving.

‘Then you need enough players who are willing to put their head in front of a bus, attack the ball and put their heads where others don’t want to.

‘If you get all of those things, you normally get success.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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