'I was surprised how negative Shrewsbury were': Portsmouth boss' frustration as Blues unable to break down Fratton Park visitors

Zak Swanson’s stunning strike cancelled out Elliott Bennett’s first-half opener, yet the Blues were unable to break them down for a second time, despite absolutely dominating.

The Shrews were well-organised under Steve Cotterill and barely left their half during the Fratton Park encounter.

Yet Pompey were not good enough to find a way through, with visiting keeper Marko Marosi barely tested throughout.

And while Cowley acknowledged his side’s failings, he was also shocked at Shrewsbury’s approach to the League One fixture.

He told The News: ‘My overriding emotion is frustration, you won’t see a more one-sided game than that.

‘We totally dominated possession, territory, shots on goal, but, ultimately, we conceded a really poor goal and we have to reflect on that because it’s the third time in three home games – Fleetwood, Oxford and Shrewsbury. We’ve given four shots on target and conceded three goals.

‘That was really the opponent’s first – and only – attack, so that’s pretty frustrating for us. We were playing well at the time as well.

‘They came and played 5-4-1, which surprised me really because they have really good players.

‘I was surprised with how negative they were, but absolutely it’s their prerogative and we have to be good enough to break it down.

‘We played with much more courage, but, if we’re being critical, we didn’t quite find the solutions in our final action, which meant that, for all that possession, we didn’t create enough clear-cut chances.

‘The hardest way to score is in the position of attack. Even in the Premier League, the average for goals scored is 3.7 passes, so in a league which is possession-based, you still score a lot of goals on transitional moments.

‘Yet Shrewsbury got behind the ball and didn’t give us any space. They sat behind it and had 11 faces – and we had to keep trying to work it and move it.’

One bright spot was Swanson, whose goal represented his first in the Football League – on just his third start.

And Cowley was pleased with how the right-back linked up with Owen Dale in the first half especially.

He added: ‘With some of our play in the first half, we sped it up down the right-hand side, Zak and Owen had a really good first half, Tunny did really well that side.

‘Box to box we were really good, we got in some really good positions on the pitch, I was really proud with the courage some of them showed.

‘But we just lacked a bit of technical details if we are being critical of ourselves.’