Portsmouth boss’ message to critics after Peterborough owner’s outspoken take on defeat and Bristol Rovers boss' classless blast

But the Blues boss vowed he won’t be losing too much sleep about those who’ve criticised him and his side after their powerful start to the season.

Pompey go to Barnsley this weekend aiming to extend their unbeaten start to the season, which has seen them set a powerful League One pace.

That success has arrived with some flak for the way Cowley and his men are going about their business.

Bristol Rovers boss Joey Barton ripped into the head coach for playing a 4-4-2 formation last month and then questioned the Cowleys’ football credentials.

That was followed up by Peterborough owner Darragh MacAnthony this week, who spoke of the best team losing at Fratton Park last weekend and intimated he saw little to fear from Pompey in his side’s 2-1 reverse.

Cowley believes such comments are a surefire indicator his side are headed in the in right direction.

He said: ‘For us, it’s to stay focussed, keep trying to get better and trying to improve. That’s what we’re trying to do.

‘We’ll allow other people to have their opinions and they can talk about our style, our formations and whatever else they want to talk about.

‘We’re not going to lose too much energy thinking about that.

‘For us, we go through the same process win, lose or draw. We always analyse the detail and from that move forward.

‘It’s football. From my experience my best teams always got criticised more.

‘We won’t lose too much sleep about it.’

Cowley is looking for Pompey to continue their flying start in another stiff test of their credentials at Barnsley.

He is hopeful a rare clear training week will help his players, against a side who showed their mettle with a 2-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday last weekend.

Cowley added: ‘We’re respectful. It’s really early in the season and we’ve made a good start.

‘But we know the better we do the harder we work.

‘This week it’s been great to get on the training pitch and have a full week’s training.

‘There was lots of learning we took from that opening run of fixtures.

‘We were able to get on the grass this week and prioritise the areas we felt were most important.

‘Then we attacked those and we made good progress on that this week.’