PITMAN PEN SAVES DAY FOR JACKETT
BRETT PITMAN’S late penalty heroics rescued Portsmouth from the brink of a shock defeat to Shrewsbury at Fratton Park.
The striker has found minutes hard to come by on the south coast after falling behind striker Oli Hawkins in the pecking order.
But he came off the bench to cancel out sub Greg Docherty’s goal and was lauded by Pompey manager Kenny Jackett – despite his frustrations over a lack of game time.
Jackett said: “It was a really tough penalty to take and Pitman has put it away fantastically well.
“He is frustrated and wants to be in the team, but he is very professional. If he does get one chance then you feel that he is going to finish it.
“We think Brett can make the difference for us during the course of the season, and help us to turn defeats into draws and draws into wins.
“We take the point, stay unbeaten and move on, but we have to be realistic and to be the side that we aspire to, we have to do better.”
The visitors were on top for the majority of the game and took the lead through Docherty, only to have their first win of the season snatched away from them.
Shrewsbury had a number of chances and could have taken the lead in the 26th minute through Lenell JohnLewis who headed just over the bar from a Shaun Whalley corner.
Portsmouth came alive in the second-half and Gareth Evans came close, but his header was met by an excellent Joel Coleman save in the 65th minute.
But it was Docherty who broke the deadlock when he took advantage of a Christian Burgess defensive blunder to stroke home with his first touch of the game. However, Pompey’s Jamal Lowe was tripped by Omar Beckles in the box, leaving Pitman to step up and blast his effort past Coleman in the 87th minute.
Shrewsbury manager John Askey claimed his side should have had two penalties themselves.
Askey said: “They had one shout for a penalty and the linesman has given it – the referee didn’t give it.
“I don’t know whether it was a penalty or not, but from what I’ve seen and from where I was sat, it wasn’t.
“We have had two calls for penalties and we haven’t been given them. I’ve watched the foul on Gilliead again and it obviously should have been a penalty. “It is frustrating because we have to be good enough to get the win without those decisions, but it’s difficult when so many have gone against us. “The referee is deciding the outcome of our games and that’s not right.”