Not sure about '˜ball to hand' but we had chances to get Shrews return

SHREWSBURY'S manager said the penalty that never was on Saturday was '˜ball to hand'.
Shaun Whalley handled the ball but no penalty was given. Picture: Joe PeplerShaun Whalley handled the ball but no penalty was given. Picture: Joe Pepler
Shaun Whalley handled the ball but no penalty was given. Picture: Joe Pepler

I guess Diego Maradona said that in 1986 and Thierry Henry likewise, when he punched in the goal which stopped Republic of Ireland going to the World Cup.

I found that an amusing assessment of the incident involving Shaun Whalley in front of the Fratton End on Saturday.

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It wasn’t just failing to give that penalty which was a frustrating factor in David Coote’s performance.

There was a worrying failure to not give decisions for constant shirt pulling, too.

That’s a worrying trait in refereeing in general these days and it needs to be eradicated from the game.

The official got it wrong at the weekend, but I don’t want to go down the road of blaming him for the defeat.

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He’s human and he’s not done it on purpose. It’s just disappointing that we were on the receiving end.

We had more than an enough chances to get at least a draw from the game.

Unfortunately we’re not having much luck in front of goal at the moment.

Shrewsbury, on the other hand, had two shots of note and scored from one of them.

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The initial ball wasn’t dealt with for the goal, we’ve switched off and then been punished.

The run is disappointing but it’s simply something you have to get through and crack on.

I still think that we’re defending well when you consider a team flying high hardly had a shot on target.

I thought Brett Pitman livened it up when he came on the pitch.

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He’s had a bit of a dip and is going through a bit of a barren run at the moment.

You would definitely have expected Brett to take the one he hit across the goal at the end of the game.

It’s the kind of thing which happens for all strikers, though. He’ll turn it around, though.

He probably feels like it’s going on forever at the moment but he will come out of it. Brett just needs to keep his head down and crack away at it, for one to fall for him. He’ll know that.

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Gareth Evans did well on his return, I felt, and Nathan Thompson delivered another assured performance.

It’s frustrating we’ve not managed to get something from the game but we now have an interesting couple of days coming up.

We’ve managed to get one new arrival in Anton Walkes and it’s definitely important we look to continue improving.

In these situations you are often waiting for movement. It’s a domino effect, and once one drops the others are set off. We wait to see what happens with interest.