Steve Cotterill: No complaints with 'excellent' Shrewsbury Town in narrow Portsmouth defeat
Steve Cotterill lauded his Shrewsbury's side's performance in the 1-0 defeat at Portsmouth which made it three defeats from three in League One this season.
The Town boss thought his side were 'excellent' in the evenly-battled and narrow Fratton Park defeat, which was settled by the hosts after just two minutes.
Shrews put in a marked performance than that of the 2-0 defeat at Morecambe on Saturday and were good value for a point on the south coast, but were denied by some fine Gavin Bazunu saves.
In the end it was Ryan Tunnicliffe's effort on three minutes that proved the difference. But, while Cotterill's men still seek their first goals and points of the campaign as they prepare for home league games against Plymouth and Gillingham, the manager feels his side will soon start picking up positive results with repeats of the 'outstanding' display at Pompey.
Cotterill said: "I thought we were excellent tonight, I thought we were excellent, that's the verdict, 100 per cent we were excellent.
"I've got no criticism, I'm really proud of the lads, there are loads of positives to take from tonight's game and going forward into the season.
"We've come to a difficult place to get a result, a real partisan crowd, but I thought we were excellent, all-round, lots of outstanding performances.
"I haven't got any problems tonight, with anyone. I thought there was a huge reaction to how we performed on Saturday.
"If we continue to perform like that, there will be enough wins around the corner."
Elliott Bennett saw Town's best effort of the first half saved well by Bazunu before Luke Leahy, Josh Vela and Aaron Pierre – with the game's best chance in the 90th minute – were all denied.
Bazunu was by far the busiest goalkeeper, with Town's Marko Marosi hardly troubled at the other end.
Cotterill put his faith in 17-year-old Tom Bloxham, while also handing first starts of the season to new loanee Sam Cosgrove and Josh Daniels in a shuffle to a 4-4-2 formation. David Davis failed a late fitness test on Monday and remained an unused substitute, with Shaun Whalley, Ryan Bowman and Ethan Ebanks-Landell still missing.
The boss added: "When you're that good, yeah (you're optimistic a chance will go in). Against a team that will be fancied for promotion, I thought there were outstanding performances, great saves from their goalkeepers, certainly in the second half.
"We can't change the result but the performance will have to come first. If we play like we played Saturday the results won't come, if we carry on playing like that then the results will come."
