Jackett: Collapse will hurt Portsmouth – but we have to put it to bed

The Blues boss feels his team are hurting after they threw away a three-goal lead, as they were held to a desperately disappointing 3-3 draw at Roots Hall.

But Jackett told his men there is no time to linger on that feeling with Bristol Rovers’ visit tomorrow, followed by promotion rivals Barnsley arriving at Fratton Park on Saturday.

He backed his team to show the resolve to take on that challenge amid a run of six league games without victory.

Jackett said: ‘It is (damaging). There’s no doubt about it.

‘It’s a very quiet dressing room and it feels like a defeat and not a draw.

‘It will feel like that, but by Monday morning we will go again.

‘You have to be resilient because we’ve got Bristol Rovers and Barnsley next week.

‘We want to be better defensively to close games out.

‘But similarly we have to retain our fire power at the front end of the pitch.

‘If you go into such a commanding lead and it doesn’t work out for you it feels like a defeat, yes.

‘You can’t paper over the cracks and we can’t forget about it. It hurts.

‘Similarly, by Monday morning you have to be ready to go again and be resilient enough to do that - and we will be.’

Jackett switched to a 4-4-2 formation for the game with Oli Hawkins and Omar Bogle looking a threat together.

He opted to change to a 4-2-3-1 when Bogle was replaced by Gareth Evans after going down with cramp.

The Pompey boss explained his thinking behind that decision, as the home side grabbed two late goals to share the spoils.

He added: ‘I thought the formation suited the players we have and I also felt it would be interesting to see how Omar and Oli worked together.

‘Bogle then got cramp and I felt Gareth could help close them down.’

Jackett couldn’t hide away from how poor the goals were his side gave away, as they lost their way to a side who’d won just one game in seven.

That may lead to the Pompey boss reconsidering his approach moving forward.

Jackett added: ‘We’ve had players like Thompson and Naylor who are very adept at seeing the game out.

‘No disrespect to the lads who have come in but the goals are very disappointing individually.

'We should be able to see it through.

‘We have good options going forward, though, and it does look like we’ve lost some defenders and gained some strikers.’