Shrewsbury's David Davis: We gave ourselves a mountain to climb
David Davis felt Shrewsbury Town gave themselves a mountain to climb with a slow start against Portsmouth in Saturday's home defeat.
Town were 2-0 down by the interval having struggled to contain a vibrant Portsmouth under new boss Danny Cowley, as Marcus Harness and John Marquis finished off well-worked moves.
Steve Cotterill's side rallied after the break and pulled one back through Nathanael Ogbeta's fine effort from distance but, despite Marquis' red card midway through the second period, the visitors held on to claim the three points with relative comfort.
Midfielder Davis made his second start in the space of a few days and put in another man of the match display for Salop in another sign that the former Birmingham favourite is quickly getting up to speed in blue and amber.
Davis, 30, said: "We're disappointed, we started slow, but I felt like in the second half we were better.
"We were probably better when they had 11 men, when they had 10 men they made it difficult for us to break them down.
"We probably didn't use the ball as we should have and we're disappointed not to get something out the game.
"Probably in the second half yes (we deserved something). I'd say we tried to get that equaliser, we got the first after conceding two so early on, when we weren't at the races in the first half so we gave ourselves a mountain to climb."
The battling midfielder, who has started with skipper Ollie Norburn suspended, added on Cotterill's half-time message via the phone: "(the message was) Just to be better, brighter and we could get something out of the game, to get the ball down and play with more intensity and to get at them a lot more."
Davis said of himself: "I feel like I'm doing OK, I know I've got a lot more to give, I want to keep kick on and progress and help the team push forward, there's a lot of competition for places, you've got to be on your toes. It's healthy, we've got some great players here."
Teenage left wing-back Ogbeta capped a superb personal week with his first senior goal with a fine low strike into the bottom corner from outside the box.
The former Manchester City starlet last week saw his free-kick against Hull go down as an own goal in the 1-1 draw before setting up both goals in the 2-1 midweek win at Burton.
Davis has been impressed with what he has seen, adding: "I think he was disappointed last week, that it (his free-kick against Hull) had not counted, and he made a great run.
He's done it a few times in the past couple of weeks and did not quite get his rewards but he did it and it was a great goal from him."
