'He's tried to do Ronan' - Portsmouth and ex-Norwich midfielder reveals feelings on Shrewsbury and former Bolton man Josh Vela's red card against Blues

It comes after the former Bolton forward was given his marching orders in the 31st minute for a challenge on Ronan Curtis, shortly after Pompey had equalised through Aiden O’Brien.

Salop were obviously feeling the frustrations of being pegged back, which reached boiling point, after the man in the middle allowed play to carry on despite Elliott Bennett claiming he was fouled.

Seconds later, the 28-year-old midfielder then allowed his anger to get the better of him, as he collided with the Republic of Ireland international.

And Thompson was convinced Vela was trying to cause serious damage to the Blues forward.

He told The News: ‘I think the referee got it (the decision) right. I think their midfielder has tried to do Ronan (Curtis) and I think there was a bit of frustration building from them after one of their players staying down.

‘Like I said, I think their player (Josh Vela) has lost his head and I think the referee called it right.

‘No, not at all (has anyone said anything about it since). We were just focused on the job. We’ll debrief it but we don’t really focus on the moments that have passed in games. We just focus on the moments we can control, and going from there.’

Despite finding themselves a man down, Shrewsbury performed valiantly with 10 men.

And they were close to earning a hard-fought point, before Thompson curled home from the edge of the box, with five minutes left, to win the game.

Pompey’s centre-midfielder added: ‘It’s harder (to play against 10-men. You have to be more patient, and I think at times we were more anxious with our build up, but in the end we found a way and I think that was important.’

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