Insight: Under-pressure Danny Cowley retains the faith of the Portsmouth dressing room

That’s information our own Jordan Cross has been privy to, after the latest setback to the Blues’ season.

Pompey dropped to 12th in the League One table following Sunday’s disappointing 3-1 defeat to Charlton at Fratton Park.

That saw large sections of the PO4 crowd spectacularly turn against the manager, with chants of ‘we want Cowley out’ and ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ heard before and after the full-time whistle.

But as Cowley continues to lose the trust of the Fratton faithful, Cross is adamant a similar scenario isn’t being replicated in the Blues changing room.

Speaking on the latest edition of Pompey Talk, he said no-one, as far as he’s heard, is ‘pulling against’ Cowley.

Cross said: ‘It can only take a win to spark things. That’s what Danny has to keep reaching for.

‘And another thing definitely worth underlining, because I’ve had people contact me – I don’t believe the dressing room has turned against Danny.

‘I genuinely don’t believe that. I think they (the players) are still with him.

‘I don’t believe he’s lost the dressing room at all. He’s got a nice bunch of players there, players who he has largely recruited and they’re a good group of lads.

‘There’s not going to be many pulling against him or sending out messages to undermine Danny. I think that’s an important weapon in his armoury during difficult times.

‘And that could be quite important if they get that confidence boost (in terms of results) that they need.’

Cross said the most important way of rectifying the Blues’ current predicament was to rebuild the players’ confidence as quickly as possible. However, he believes they should not escape scrutiny.

They’re as culpable as anyone for Pompey’s problems, according to Cross, as he also touched on the lack of leaders within the group.

‘I think their confidence is shot,’ he said.

‘I think they’re a good bunch and, yeah, there should be more leadership.

‘But the players are clearly massively culpable (as well). Marlon Pack is someone who has tried for me and continues to try.

‘I saw a lot of play on Sunday and in recent games where players weren’t looking for the forward pass, and because the confidence was shot they were looking sideways and backwards.

‘I think one person who didn’t deserve criticism again was Joe Morrell, who was really ratting around, trying to get things going.

‘He’s got many qualities but passing forwards is perhaps not one of them, but I think he was the only one clear of blame on Sunday.

‘As I said, Marlon’s a leader – he’ll step up. Clark Robertson’s the skipper but is not a leader in that way. I think the reason he was given the skipper’s armband was to try to get more out of him.

‘Maybe Pompey do need a leader or two more but it’s more about trying to regain confidence.’