Ollie Westbury's Shrewsbury analysis: Beaten by the better team - time to move on
Sometimes in football, the opposition are just better than you.
And that was the case for Shrewsbury Town on Saturday as they lost 3-0 at home to Portsmouth. The victory saw the visitors move seven points clear at the top of the League One table.
Matt Taylor reflected post-match that Town’s season will not be defined by games like this one against Pompey, who have only lost once this season. That is a fair comment.
The same thing could probably be argued for the upcoming game against Peterborough this weekend as they now sit in second place.
Town have had a decent start to the season and worst case scenario they will have 27 points at the midway point of the campaign which, if most fans had been offered that at the start of the season, they would have taken.
So a 3-0 defeat to Pompey is by no means a terrible result against the best side to have played at the Meadow this season.
The pattern of the game was clear from the offset. Given the way Town had allowed Wycombe and Notts County to have the ball – to great success – it would have been reasonable to assume the game would follow a similar trend, and it did.
But once again, like they have done so often recently, Salop defended resolutely, and aside for Kusini Yengi’s sitter just before the half-hour mark, after Paddy Lane had got to the byline and pulled it back to him eight yards out, Shrews were untroubled.
They were therefore kicking themselves at the break when they trailed.
