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TEAMS and STATS |
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Season 2023 / 2024 (A) Shrewsbury Town |
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Abu Kamara bagged a brace as
Pompey continued their run of fine form with a comfortable victory at
Shrewsbury. A dull opening period was lit up in stoppage-time by the Norwich loanee’s finish and the visitors then took total control after the break. Marlon Pack’s close-range finish provided a cushion before Kamara's fierce late strike wrapped up the win against Matt Taylor’s Shrews. John Mousinho stuck with the same side that were so impressive in beating Bolton on home soil at the start of the week. Colby Bishop had to be content with a place on the bench after recovering from an ankle injury, with Kusini Yengi continuing to lead the line. The first half was certainly not an electric affair, with the visitors dominating possession, but struggling to convert that into meaningful chances. They were passing the ball around comfortably and just lacking the final delivery to trouble a solid Shrews back-line. It took until the 24th minute for the first chance of note, although even then Marko Maroši was not too troubled by a long-range Jack Sparkes strike. They probably should have taken the lead soon after, as Paddy Lane cut the ball back into the mixer, where Yengi cleared the crossbar from only eight yards out. And there was another opportunity when Alex Robertson curled a shot narrowly over from just inside the box. The hosts did threaten themselves towards the end of the half, but speculative attempts from Nohan Kenneh and Dan Udoh were comfortably dealt with by Will Norris. Just when it looked like a rather insipid opening half was coming to an end, however, Pompey took the lead. Pack launched a long throw into the area and KAMARA held off the challenge of Jordan Shipley to hook the ball home at the far post. Half Time: Shrewsbury 0 Pompey 1 Pompey had a chance to extend their advantage shortly after the restart, when Robertson slipped a neat pass through to Kamara. He skilfully beat his man and tried to send the ball into the area, but it bounced agonisingly over the heads of both Lane and Yengi. There was certainly no lack of attacking intent from the hosts, as they continued to push forward at any given opportunity. And the second goal did arrive just past the hour mark, as Lane had all the time in the world to run onto Sparkes’ ball down the line, cut inside and square for PACK to tap home at the near post. Mousinho freshened up his forward line on 72 minutes, with Bishop making a welcome return to action in place of Yengi. Shrewsbury then had a chance to reduce the deficit, but Max Mata fired wastefully over after turning inside the area. Pompey were not done attacking themselves and Maroši dived acrobatically to beat away a well struck Lane effort. Having been booked a few minutes earlier, the tireless Joe Morrell then made way for former Shrews loanee Christian Saydee. And he haunted his old side by slipping a lovely pass through to KAMARA, who rifled a fine finish into the roof of the net to put the result beyond doubt. It might have been an even greater margin of victory, but Maroši did well to deal with Saydee’s deflected strike and the loose ball was cleared before Bishop could capitalise. |
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Shrewsbury (3-5-2): Maroši;
Dunkley (c), Pierre, Anderson; Feeney (Benning 70), Winchester (Sobowale
70), Kenneh, Perry, Shipley; Bowman (Mata 46), Udoh |
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Updated - 19/04/2024 |
