Danny Cowley defends Portsmouth's recent disciplinary record ahead of potential season-defining games against Crewe, Ipswich and Plymouth

The Blues boss made the rebuttal after Marcus Harness’ red card in Saturday’s 4-0 win against Accrington.

Pompey’s 11-goal top-scorer was dismissed on 21 minutes for a rash challenge from behind on Accy’s Ross Sykes.

He’ll now miss the next three games – starting with tonight’s trip to Crewe – giving Cowley a selection headache at a time when he has only 13 senior outfield players to chose from.

Harness’ ban is not the first time the Blues have been dealt a blow of this nature in the past month.

Joe Morrell served a similar suspension following his red in the 3-2 defeat at Oxford.

Meanwhile, Ronan Curtis will return to the fray tonight after completing his two-match ban for accumulating 10 bookings in the league this season.

In total, the aforementioned suspensions equate to eight games at a time when Pompey still retain promotion hopes.

That hardly ideal when numbers are so scarce.

But Cowley insisted it’s not something he sees as a growing problem within his ranks.

In fact, he believes his players need to up their game when it comes to the physical side of their performances.

He said: ‘I don’t see discipline being a problem with this group - if anything I feel we are under physical.

‘We know that when we get on the right side of the defensive aspects of the game – the one v one duels, the area duels, the second balls – is normally when we get on the right side of the results.

‘Normally, we want to play on the front foot in an aggressive way, we want to defend early, and we know we have to run to be able to play in that way.

‘When you look at the sending offs, for me, the Joe Morrell one was ridiculous in my opinion.

‘Marcus (Harness) deserved to get sent off – even though it could’ve been avoided if the referee had made the decision correctly and given the first foul (when Ross Sykes looked to have illegally challenged the forward).

‘But I don’t see it as a problem at all.’

When asked if Harness had apologised to his team-mates for his dismissal against Accrington, Cowley answered: ‘Marcus has taken responsibility for his actions.

‘He was disappointed afterwards and we've spoken again since.

‘When we have this situation, they’re human beings and they will make mistakes and when they do it’s to take learning from it moving forward.’