Shrewsbury v Portsmouth press conference: Every word Danny Cowley said on Michael Jacobs injury, the Crewe cancellation, what they did after game, travelling to Shrews and more

Here’s the responses he gave to questions on the Crewe cancellation, what they did immediately afterwards, Michael Jacobs’ injury, the amount of travelling involved at this level and, of course, the Shrews.

Crewe cancellation 48 hours on and whether it could have been dealt with differently

I think in hindsight absolutely.

For us, being a referee is very difficult, they have to make decisions based on certain protocols.

You would think it would be as simple as looking at the pitch and making a decision whether the pitch was playable or not.

They have to consider player safety and they also have to consider crowd safety and, in hindsight, he should’ve given the pitch longer.

I think everyone would’ve accepted that, given the fact everyone travelled as far as they did.

If we had given it a bit longer then we could’ve played the game.

Referee’s have to make decisions based in the moment and Martin Coy is a really experienced referee, but it's happened now so we have to move on.

I felt desperately sorry for our supporters, knowing the efforts they went to travel to Crewe in what were the most difficult conditions with the two storms we’ve encountered in recent times.

Making the use of Crewe’s training ground and hospitality once match was called off

For us, it was always if the game gets called off, player rhythm is very important.

It was always the right thing to do to train, it wasn't ideal because the players are prepared mentally and physically to play and when you take the game away and you have to train, it can be tough for the players.

Credit to them, the work ethic and attitude was excellent and we got the best out of them in a good session at Crewe.

We have to thank them for their hospitality.

They have a lovely indoor facility so we were able to utilise that and were able to get some good work and some early preparation for Tuesday night’s game.

The affects of travelling to away games

There’s no excuses for us.

We know that there’s a lot of travelling in this division, especially living on the south coast and you are going to be up and down the country.

It’s just the nature of our job and our industry.

For me, I think the players get paid for travelling because they don’t get paid to play football because that’s just a pleasure and privilege.

So we have some travelling but we have to get on with it and adapt to bringing the very best version of ourselves for what is a really important game on Tuesday night.

Thoughts on travelling to Shrewsbury

I don’t know if I’m travelling with confidence but we have spoken to Shrewsbury and they don’t anticipate any issues.

We’ve had two storms back-to-back and a lot of wind that has come with both storms, so we are hopeful that it will go ahead.

We’ve seen some pictures and videos from their pitch on Saturday and it looked particularly wet but I’m told the ground staff have been on it and the wind has helped dry it out.

I think we have another call with Shrewsbury at lunch-time before we leave so I'm hopeful.

Michael Jacobs injury update

Unfortunately, with Michael, in a really innocuous moment in training – in an unopposed drill, just a passing drill – he made the pass and landed on his kicking foot, hyperextending his knee and he has done some damage there.

We are hopeful it is going to be short-term rather than long-term.

It’ll be weeks rather than months but there’s lots of inflammation around the knee at the moment, but we hope weeks rather than months.

Michael will be a big miss, he’s in a really good moment.

I’m really disappointed for him because since we joined the club it’s been one thing or another.

When we first came he did really well and then picked up a knee injury which needed to be operated on, which ended his season last year.

He came back later this season still rehabbing the knee, but this time it is the other knee which is good.

This time he’d picked up a couple of illnesses, Covid, and so it’s been stop-start for him because he’d just got himself into a rhythm and that’s why we are all frustrated.

Louis Thompson and Ryan Tunnicliffe

For us Louis has done well in recent games, Ryan is getting back to fitness and he’s such an important player for us.

He’s had a really nasty hamstring injury and we are getting him back to full fitness which will be a real plus for us going forward.