David Longwell: Red card didn't help Shrewsbury Town

Marquis doubled Pompey's lead before the break, adding to Marcus Harness' fine opener for the impressive visitors, but the frontman saw red midway through the second period for a lunge on Harry Chapman.

Nathanael Ogbeta's first goal for Town had pulled one back for Steve Cotterill's men shortly after the interval and Salop appeared to have good momentum, but that was stunted by Marquis' dismissal, after which Danny Cowley's Portsmouth sat back content with their narrow lead and made the contest's finale a scrappy, stop-start affair.

"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," said Shrewsbury first-team coach Longwell.

"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."

Longwell said: "Frustration and disappointment are the overall feelings for the players, manager and ourselves.

"We got back in the game in the second half but just didn't do enough to get that equaliser.

"We went 2-0 down in the first half and felt we didn't do as well as we liked but felt we could get something out of the second half."

Town struggled to create any chances of note late on their search of an equaliser. Their only clear opportunity aside from Ogbeta's fine finish from distance was an early opening for Daniel Udoh, which might have change the course of the contest had it been converted.

Shrewsbury, who were unbeaten in four games, opted to bench both six-goal top scorers Chapman and Whalley as Udoh and Main started together up front.

Longwell pointed to using the full Town squad and successful recent rotation when asked about leaving Whalley and Chapman out of the line-up.

But Cotterill, calling the shots from home, elected to change the system at the break, switching from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3 in bringing loan star Chapman on for Ryan Sears, who endured a difficult afternoon in an unfavoured right wing-back role.

"The manager said to the players that the change of shape will help and the 4-3-3 definitely helped," Longwell said.

"With the goal we had the momentum with the change in system but we couldn't get that second goal we wanted.

"In the first half we didn't play to the level we can, in the second half we were creating more but after the sending off it was two banks of four, which was difficult to break down, we've got to do better to break it down moving forward."

Ogbeta halved the arrears with his first senior goal, a fine strike from outside the box into the bottom corner with his weaker right foot.

Longwell added: "He (Ogbeta) was really frustrated with his own performance in the first half, with the levels that he's set.

"But we just told him to keep going and keep trying to do the right things and he's come up with a really good finish, it's his first goal so there's a positive in that and hopefully he can kick on and get more confidence from that."

Longwell confirmed that Josh Daniels, who came out of the side with a knock for Sears, could miss the next couple of games with a muscle problem.

The Town coach said of Marquis' red card in the second half: "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."