17 August 2021

Danny Cowley: Portsmouth will only get better

17 August 2021

Portsmouth manager Danny Cowley insists his side can still improve despite beating Shrewsbury 1-0 to move to the top of Sky Bet League One.

Ryan Tunnicliffe’s first Pompey goal after only 120 seconds was enough to make it three wins from their opening three league games for the first time since 1988.

Cowley said: “I think we had a really good way into the game, a great goal from our perspective.

“We had good control of the first half without playing with enough purpose and when you don’t play with enough purpose, players lose their positional discipline and become less of a threat.

“Credit to Shrewsbury, they made it difficult for us, very direct, very physical. They asked questions of us. It ended up being a good win for us.

“It didn’t look like football at times.

“League One is a really tight league with very little between the teams. We want to play better than that and see the game out better than we did.

“The positive is we defended our box really well and kept another clean sheet.”

Portsmouth got off to the perfect start when Marcus Harness set off on a mazy run before teeing-up Tunnicliffe to slot home from 10 yards.

In the last minute of normal time, goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu made a stunning flying save to keep out Aaron Pierre’s header from point-blank range and deny Shrewsbury a point.

Shrews boss Steve Cotterill said: “I thought we were excellent tonight so I can’t criticise my players.

“I’m really proud and there are loads of positives to take going into the rest of the season.

“We’ve come to a difficult place to get a result, a real partisan crowd, but I thought we were excellent all round, lots of outstanding performances.

“I haven’t got any problems tonight, with anyone. I thought there was a huge reaction to how we performed on Saturday.

“If we continue to perform like that, there will be enough wins around the corner.”

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