'I will try anything, even for a 0.1 per cent advantage': Danny Cowley answers critics of his Portsmouth injury stance ahead of Shrewsbury clash

And he admits to personally poring over forthcoming opposition’s pre-match news to glean crucial team details to provide ‘marginal gains’.

The Blues head coach’s penchant for delivering sketchy injury news has received criticism from some of the Fratton faithful this week.

Despite positively talking up potential comebacks for Tom Lowery and Joe Rafferty over several weeks, frustratingly the duo have still to return.

Yet Cowley has defended the stance, insisting it serves as a deliberate ploy to prevent gifting helpful team information to aid rivals’ preparation.

He told The News: ‘I would love to be able to tell our supporters everything that’s going on and be completely transparent – but if I do then I’m giving a lot away to our opponent.

‘I’m in the business of winning and it’s my job to give Pompey the very best opportunity to be able to win come match day, so you don’t divulge too much information.

‘We’ve had it before where teams have given information which has really helped our preparation, we can then narrow our focus on the players.

‘For example, on Monday it was announced by Oxford that Matt Taylor was unsuccessful in his appeal against a red card, so we put a line through him for this game and started looking at other options they had available.

‘We had the same situation last season after Joe Morrell was sent off against Oxford. We appealed, but didn’t divulge the outcome until as late as we possibly could.

‘I do that in the very best interests of Portsmouth Football Club at heart. These are marginal gains, we know the difference between winning and losing and the line can be really, really fine.

‘I will try anything, absolutely anything. If I think I can get a 0.1 per cent advantage then I’m going to take it. That is always how we’ve worked.

‘We look at other clubs and do everything in our power to accumulate as much information as we can about that opponent. You want to know what armoury and weapons they have.

‘If the opponent puts out a video of their group training, our analysts go through the footage of their warm-up and tick off who is training and who’s not.

‘You try to be aware about who is available, this is all part of trying to get on the right side of a result.’

Pompey entertain Shrewsbury on Saturday with team selection once again blighted by severe injury problems.

And Cowley expects opposite number Steve Cotterill to have monitored Pompey’s press conference in advance.

He added: ‘If you listen to my language and go back prior to Oxford, I said I was hoping – and I was really hoping – that Marlon Pack would be fit. He wasn’t, but I was really hoping.

‘We know Steve Cotterill is very detailed, he’s a very well-organised manager and a very good planner.

‘He could be reading this – so you have to be aware of what you can and can’t say!’