Fuming Portsmouth boss fires no-nonsense warning to players after Newport County upset sees unbeaten start end

Danny Cowley fired a stern warning that he’ll axe players not prepared to put in the graft for Pompey as they surrendered their unbeaten start to the season.

Newport County sprung a Carabao Cup upset as the Blues gave up a first-half lead on the way to a 3-2 reverse to the League Two outfit at Rodney Parade.

Cowley’s side played out a breathless first 45 minutes against the Exiles as they went in 2-1 up at the break.

Goals from Aaron Wildig and James Waite spun the game on its head, though, as Newport progressed to the next round.

It was Pompey’s inability to deliver the basic requirements which left Cowley fuming, as he made eight changes from Saturday’s win over Bristol Rovers.

And he warned those players who can’t step up in those areas soon won’t be involved in his starting XI.

Cowley said: ‘We’re not in the hat for the next round because we missed a lot of chances in the first half.

‘We created chances at will and weren’t - we weren’t ruthless enough and clinical enough.

‘Then I thought we played really poorly second half, actually. I was disappointed with the second-half performance.

‘I don’t think we respected the game enough against the ball.

‘I didn’t think we did any of the basics you need to do to protect your goal, whether that was one v one duels, defensive footwork, putting pressure on the ball, squeezing up the pitch, winning second balls and aerial duels.

‘People call them the ugly part of the game, I’m not sure they are - they’re the work against the ball.

‘If you want to play in our team you have to do those bits, because the way we defend is an 11-man job.

‘If players are not able to muck in and do that aspect they won’t play.’

Cowley acknowledged that missed chances played a central role in Pompey failing to make the third round of the Carabao Cup for the second time in a decade.

But it wasn’t their failure to put the game to bed with clear opportunities in the first half which irked him most.

He added: ‘We missed chances for sure.

‘I’m not annoyed with the forwards in terms of that. I thought Dane Scarlett was unplayable at times, he’ll start scoring soon and won’t stop scoring.

‘I was disappointed with how we defended from the front. That was my bigger concern, not the missed chances.

‘Forward players will miss chances and the positives are what we created.

‘I had no problem with us in possession, it was our work out of possession which disappointed me.’