Portsmouth boss John Mousinho branded his side “awful” after they were thrashed 3-0 at home by Leyton Orient.
The shell-shocked south coast outfit conceded all three goals before half-time as their poor recent run extended to one win in six games.
Mousinho did not hold back in his post-match assessment and said: “I thought we were awful, to be honest. In the game as a whole we weren’t good enough.
“We started OK but it is not good enough to just be OK for 20 to 25 minutes.
“We went under after we conceded the first goal and that summed up our afternoon.
“We did not create enough in the final third and did not defend our box well enough. We were just a yard off it in everything we did.
“Our job is to dust ourselves down and go again and try to put our finger on what went wrong.
“The message to the players is we are at a stage of the season now where it goes one of two ways.
“We are somehow still top of the league and that gives us something to hold on to. We have 19 games to put that to bed.”
Orient could have been ahead inside the first 10 seconds, but Dan Agyei’s shot was deflected for a corner.
They did take the lead after 30 minutes when a one-two between Shaq Forde and Max Sanders saw Forde score easily.
It was 2-0 five minutes later when Jordan Brown stabbed home after a goalmouth scramble.
Pompey had a chance to get back in the game after 40 minutes with a penalty after a foul on Jack Sparkes, but Colby Bishop’s tame effort was easily saved.
Things got worse for Pompey in the last minute of first-half added time when Agyei headed home from a corner.
Orient maintained their dominance in the second half, stifling Pompey’s efforts to get back into the game and came away worthy winners.
Visiting manager Richie Wellens said: “I am really proud of all my players.
“The last five or six games has been an accumulation of what we have been doing all season, but we have not been able to play the way we wanted to play and have not been able to get certain players on the pitch.
“It was probably a good time to play Portsmouth and we started the game well and did not give them any breathing space.
“We pressed them and they could not really play through us. They had a couple of opportunities in the first half but we had chances to score more goals.
“From one to 11 today and the subs that came on everyone was excellent and the work-rate was brilliant as well.”
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