Shrews coach backs red card call
SHREWSBURY coach David Longwell felt
John Marquis deserved his controversial red card at New Meadow.
But Steve Cotterill’s lieutenant believed the striker’s second-half dismissal didn’t help his side in Saturday’s 2-1 reverse to Pompey.
The Blues were reduced to 10 men for the final 22 minutes, as Marquis walked for a challenge on Shrews substitute Harry Chapman.
The striker appeared to win the ball as he went in on Chapman after a loose touch, but referee Ben Speedie deemed the force of the tackle worthy of a red card.
Longwell told the Shropshire Star: ‘It did look as if his foot was up.
‘I don’t think he’s tried to do Chappy but his foot was up over the top of the ball a little bit.
‘It looked like a red from where we were standing but I’d need to see it again to clarify that.
‘They have got very good players and a new management team going in. We just didn’t do what we wanted to do in the first half.
‘Unfortunately we lost a goal where we could’ve defended better and then to go two goals down it’s hard to come back from that.
‘But we certainly gave it the best we could in the second half. We just felt them having a man sent off didn’t actually help us.
‘Sometimes you find that in football. We had the momentum at the time and felt on top of the game, but sometimes when there is a man sent off they just sit in two banks of four and it’s hard for us to break them down.
‘We’ve got to do a better job of breaking them down and creating more chances, with more balls into the box, we didn’t do that.
‘With the goal we had the momentum with the change in system but we couldn’t get that second goal we wanted.’