Pitman earns praise as penalty peps up Pompey
Posted Sunday, September 09, 2018 by PA
Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett praised striker Brett Pitman after his late penalty rescued Portsmouth from the brink of a shock defeat to Shrewsbury.
Pitman has found minutes hard to come by on the south coast after falling behind Oli Hawkins in the pecking order.
But he came off the bench to cancel out Greg Docherty’s goal and Jackett said: “It was a really tough penalty to take and Pitman has put it away fantastically well.
“He is frustrated and wants to be in the team but he is very professional as well. If he does get one chance then you feel that he is going to finish it.
“We think Brett can make the difference for us during the course of the season, and help us to turn defeats into draws and draws into wins.
“But we take the point, stay unbeaten and move on but we have to be realistic as well and to be the side that we aspire to be, we have to do better than today.”
Shrewsbury should have taken the lead midway through the first half when Lenell John-Lewis saw his header go over.
The visitors continued to dominate and had a shout for a penalty waved away after Shaun Whalley looked to have been bundled over by defender Matt Clarke.
They then had another chance to break the deadlock on the stroke of half-time only for Anthony Grant to rifle past the post.
Pompey fought back after the restart but were involved in another penalty scare as Lee Brown clattered into Shrewsbury’s Alex Gilliead.
The away side’s dominance paid off in the 74th minute as substitute Docherty took full advantage of a Christian Burgess blunder to score with his first touch of the game.
However, they were pegged back at the death when Omar Beckles tripped Nathan Thompson in the box and Pitman tucked away his first goal of the season.
Shrewsbury manager John Askey claimed that his side should have had two penalties themselves.
Askey said: “They had one shout for a penalty and the linesman has given it, the referee didn’t give it.
“I don’t know whether it was a penalty or not but from what I’ve seen and from where I was sat, it wasn’t.
“We have had two calls for penalties and we haven’t been given them. I’ve watched the foul on Gilliead again and it obviously should have been a penalty.
“It is frustrating because we have to be good enough to get the win without those decisions but it’s difficult when so many have gone against us.
“The referee is deciding the outcome of our games and that’s not right.”
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