Shrewsbury give their response to Portsmouth striker's controversial red card

But Steve Cotterill’s lieutenant believe the striker’s second-half dismissal didn’t help his side in Saturday’s 2-1 reverse to Pompey.

The Blues were reduced to 10 men for the final 22 minutes, as Marquis walked for a challenge on sub Harry Chapman.

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The striker appeared to win the ball as he went in on Chapman after a loose touch, but referee Ben Speedie deemed the force of the challenge worthy of a red as home players surrounded the ref.

It’s a view Pompey disagreed with and they will appeal the decision, with Marquis facing a three-game ban.

Longwell felt the tackle warranted a dismisall, although he felt there was no malice in the challenge.

He feels the incident didn’t particularly help Salop, however, as they chased the game and Pompey saw out the win.

Longwell told the Shropshire Star: ‘It did look as if his foot was up, I don't think he's tried to do Chappy but his foot was up over the top of the ball a little bit.

‘It looked like a red from where we were standing but I'd need to see it again to clarify that.

‘They have got very good players and a new management team going in. We just didn't do what we wanted to do in the first half.

‘Unfortunately we lost a goal where we could've defended better and then to go two goals down it's hard to come back from that.

‘But we certainly gave it the best we could in the second half, we just felt them having a man sent off didn't actually help us.

‘Sometimes you find that in football, we had the momentum at the time and felt on top of the game, but sometimes when there is a man sent off they just sit in two banks of four and it's hard for us to break them down.’

Longwell acknowledged Shrewsbury were second best in the first half as Pompey dominated and went in at the break two goals up, after dominating possession.

The balance of the clash changed after Marquis’ red card, but the home side failed to seriously worry Pompey through the latter stages of the game.

Longwell added: ‘We've got to do a better job of breaking them down and creating more chances, with more balls into the box, we didn't do that.

‘With the goal we had the momentum with the change in system but we couldn't get that second goal we wanted.

‘In the first half we didn't play to the level we can, in the second half we were creating more but after the sending off it was two banks of four, which was difficult to break down, we've got to do better to break it down moving forward.’

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