Portsmouth relegation rivals Oxford United sack manager Gary Rowett after defeat to Charlton Athletic
Pompey currently sit two points clear of Oxford United in the Championship table.
Oxford United have sacked manager Gary Rowett after a poor start in the Championship this season.
The U’s currently occupy a spot in the relegation zone following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Charlton Athletic, which represented their 11th of the campaign so far.
Pompey’s relegation rivals sack manager
Rowett spent 12 months with Oxford following his appointment on December 20, 2024, winning just 14 of his 50 games in charge. The 51-year-old kept the U’s in the Championship last term and avoided relegation by four points.
His departure comes just three days after he admitted his Yellows side were in desperate need of help after a disappointing opening four months of the campaign, which also included a 1-0 defeat to John Mousinho’s men on the opening day.
Following Saturday’s reverse to Charlton Athletic at The Valley, stressed his side haven’t been good enough as they headed into Christmas in the Championship bottom three.
Oxford United ‘need help’
He told the Oxford Mail: ‘Difficult defeat to take. It felt as though it was a pretty even game; I didn’t think there was a lot in it.
‘I don’t necessarily think Charlton were better than us but also don’t think we were better than them. I thought it was a pretty even game that probably looked like it was going to end in a draw.
‘One moment of quality for the goal and we couldn’t find that. We huffed and puffed a little bit. I thought first half we actually played quite well for an away performance.
‘I thought we had some control, got into some good positions but without really creating much more than a shot from distance or a rushed effort.
‘We’ve got a really honest group. The group clearly needs a little bit of help in January. They’re an honest group.
They work hard but we’re just struggling to find that little bit of a difference in this division without someone like Cameron in the team. That’s what we’re missing really.
‘You only have to look at our goal scoring list to know that we haven’t got enough players in and around the level that we need. Apart from Will, apart from Cam, apart from Shemmy, we’re sort of ones and that’s it.
‘It’s hard to win games when you’re always looking for that one moment. You need three, four, five players to step up in different games and come up with different moments to go and win you points.
‘At the moment, we’re struggling to find that. Whether that’s a little bit of confidence, whether that’s that we don’t quite have the momentum we had last season when we came in, and it’s difficult to just find that from somewhere.
‘Most of the players have had a good opportunity and whilst I think we’ve been incredibly competitive in this division, we just haven’t quite had enough to win enough games and that’s the simple truth.’
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