Shrewsbury facing midfield issues
Shrewsbury Town and Steve Cotterill face a midfield conundrum having lost David Davis and Josh Vela during last night’s late 2-1 home defeat to Portsmouth.
Defensive midfield stalwart Davis limped off after just 20 minutes after following appeared an innocuous landing in front of the dugout.
The experienced former Birmingham man could not place any weight on his right foot and Town will wait to see the extent of the concerning problem. Town were 1-0 to the good against visitors Pompey at the time of Davis’ withdrawal after the returning Luke Leahy had nodded them ahead.
But Portsmouth equalised through Aiden O’Brien on half hour before, barely a couple of minutes later, Vela was shown a straight red card for a wild swipe on Ronan Curtis.
Vela, who has received nine yellow cards this season, will – barring an unlikely successful appeal – serve at least a three-match suspension for violent conduct. He will miss games at Burton on Saturday, at home to Rotherham next Tuesday and at Cambridge on Saturday week.
The dismissal is Town’s sixth of the season in all competitions – five of which have been straight reds – and no League One side have received more red cards.
Town introduced Nottingham Forest loanee Tyrese Fornah for Davis while wing-back Elliott Bennett was shuffled into midfield following Vela’s dismissal, but voss Cotterill does not have an abundance of midfield options to call upon for upcoming fixtures as his side extended their run of winless league games to eight last night.
