Danny Cowley: My Portsmouth frustration that performance didn't get Sheffield Wednesday result we deserved

The Blues were held to a goalless draw by promotion-chasing Sheffield Wednesday at Fratton Park.

Yet Cowley’s men will undoubtedly have felt they deserved victory following one of their finest home performances of the campaign.

Certainly a number of prime goal-scoring opportunities were created, with Owls keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell named man of the match by Sky.

What’s more, the visitors had to see out the final 22 minutes with 10 men following Massimo Luongo’s red card.

And while Cowley was delighted with the quality of the Blues’ display, he felt they warranted plenty more than a single point.

He told The News: ‘I don’t think we’ll get the credit that the performance deserved.

‘I thought we played with energy, intensity, aggression, purpose, and certainly created enough chances to win the game.

‘We are always disappointed when we don’t win at Fratton Park. I think ‘disappointed’ is maybe the wrong word, ‘frustrated’ is the better word.

‘Frustrated that we didn’t get the goal and the win that the hard work and the quality of performance deserved

‘The narrative was their goalkeeper was man of the match and I thought he made some brilliant saves.

‘There are definitely some chances which I think we could have been more clinical and more ruthless with our final action, but, equally, he made some outstanding saves as well and you have to credit him for that.

‘It was one of our best performances at home this season. I know it’s a goalless draw but it was a good game, it looked like a good standard League One game.

‘Sheffield Wednesday have some top players, there’s no doubt about that, and for us to keep a clean sheet against the offensive players they have is credit to the group as a whole.’

Pompey’s preparations were again impacted by the illness bug which has swept the camp of late.

Michael Jacobs was the latest casualty, pulling out on the morning of the match, while Joe Morrell is still not ready to return.

In addition, Lee Brown has been diagnosed with a hamstring injury and was ruled out of making the 18-man squad against the Owls, joining a lengthening casualty list.

Cowley added: ‘Don’t underestimate how tough it has been in the last 10 days with the amount of illness.

‘No Joe (Morrell), no Michael Jacobs who we lost Tuesday morning, it’s a sickness bug with flu-type symptoms.

‘Even some of the boys that played were playing under the weather and I thought they gave everything to the cause.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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