COWLEY’S CONTENT TO MAKE A POINT
DANNY Cowley claimed his Portsmouth side had the best chance of the game during the clash with Ipswich, which ended in stalemate.
It came when Aiden O’Brien fired just over the bar in the first half while in the six-yard box, and he said there were other moments for his side to claim the three points and felt that his team could have pushed on in the later stages of the match and win the game.
But Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said he thought his side were the better team and was “disappointed” with the draw, but that they have to “keep plugging away”.
The result extended both sides’ unbeaten runs with the home side now going nine games undefeated and the visitors to eight but the result kept them just adrift of the top six.
Cowley said: “It was a really hard fought, well earned point against a super heavyweight of the division.
“I think it’s very difficult for us to compete with them off the pitch, you’ve only got to look at their squad and look at the players on their bench and all the players not even in their squad.
“But we can compete with them on the pitch and we certainly compete with them in the stands as they (the 1,986 visiting fans) were incredible today.
“If you’re going to come to a team like Ipswich and the players that they have, you’re going to have to come and enjoy defending and moments will become available on the counter attack.
“I think we probably had the best chance of the game, but we just weren’t able to take it and we had other moments as well.”
McKenna added: “I thought it was a game we deserved to win, I thought we were the better team especially in the second half.
“I thought we were better in obviously difficult circumstances as we had to make two subs in the first half that made the circumstances very challenging.
“I’m proud of the efforts of the players, we regrouped second half and put on a very good performance, dominated most of if not all aspects of the game but just did not find that little margin to find the goal. I’m disappointed to have drawn it, but it keeps the our consistency going and we have to just keep plugging away.”
O’Brien diverted the ball over the bar from inside the six-yard box and seconds later his shot from outside the penalty area went wide.
Kayden Jackson was denied by Gavin Bazunu, Sean Raggett glanced a header onto the roof of the net, Tyreek Bakinson fired straight at Bazunu while the shot stopper prevented Bersant Celina from finding the target and Bakinson’s header hit the side netting.
Ipswich had the ball in the Portsmouth net from close range through Bonne, but the effort was ruled offside as the game drew to a close.