Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley has told The News that goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu isn't to blame for his side's defeat to Rotherham United at the weekend. 

The South Coast club were well beaten on Saturday as they lost out 4-1 at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, with former Pompey striker Michael Smith, Richard Wood and Ben Wiles all scoring for the Yorkshire club either side of Marcus Harness's goal for the visitors.

Overall it was a day to forget for Cowley's men and Bazunu in particular, with the young shot stopper seeing a Dan Barlaser shot fall through his hands to allow Smith to score his second of the afternoon.

However the Pompey boss was quick to jump to the defence of his keeper, as he stated the following after the game:

"I don't want to get too fixated on that because that's not the reason we lost. The reason we lost is because of our response after conceding that goal.

"Sometimes you want good team-mates to dig their mates out of difficult moments. They make a mistake, they are going to go and respond to it, but we weren't able to find the inspiration to do it."

That result saw Pompey remain someway off where they want to be in the Sky Bet League One standings and the South Coast side will now be looking to put things right moving forwards.

Cowley's men are back in action tomorrow night as they play host to Ipswich Town at Fratton Park.

The Verdict 

It's fair to say that Portsmouth are feeling the heat after dropping further behind in the early race for promotion and more specifically the play-offs and now people are looking for someone to blame.

Bazunu did admittedly play a small role in his side's downfall, but really you have to look at the bigger ;picture in order to see where Pompey went wrong.

The young keeper is still very much learning his trade at this level and overall he has had a great impact at the club since his arrival on loan from Manchester City.

Pompey now have a great chance to bounce back and will be hoping to heap even more pressure on their former boss Paul Cook tomorrow night under the lights at Fratton Park.