Portsmouth went down to an opening day defeat at Shrewsbury in a disappointing start to their League One campaign.
Widely tipped for automatic promotion, Pompey had no answer to a sixty-eighth-minute screamer from Shrewsbury Town debutant Ryan Giles.
A bad day at the office was complete when Rangers loanee Ross McCrorie received his marching orders after an eighty-first-minute challenge on Donald Love produced a second yellow card from the top pocket of referee Charles Breakspear.
Despite the defeat, it is fair to say many Pompey fans kept some perspective on social media, having watched their side dominate possession without producing a successful end product.
Shrewsbury rode their luck at times, but the failure of Pompey to break them down was worrying for some fans who drew parallels with many performances from last season when Kenny Jackett’s men eventually came up short in a dour play-off semi-final defeat to Sunderland.
While the calls for Jackett’s sacking were minimal, there is an element amongst the Pompey fanbase who are not happy with the Welshman’s tactics, as the following selection of responses to the news of the result on Twitter illustrates.
People were hating on me, but i’m gonna say again KJ tactics so old and crap, 1 shot on target at half time is atrocious… at the end of the day I’m just saying what needs to be done. I can see another season in League one.
— UpThePompZ (@UpThePompz) August 3, 2019
62% possession & 15 shots, lose 1-0. Standard Pompey.
— Harvey (@HarvBrowning23) August 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/Rooks9295/status/1157682327331512320?s=20
Very dissapoining KJ still doesn't go for it enough when teams defend deep but its along season and plenty of options to mix up the team PUP 💙
— Spamdalorian💜 (@Spamdalorian) August 3, 2019
Shrewsbury must have been spying on training sessions using drones. How else would they know we’d play hoofball to a lone striker?
— George Stevens (@pompeygeorge) August 3, 2019
I blame the grey kit, players couldn't see each other
— Jamie Evans (@JMan_90) August 3, 2019
Games gone, move on to the next one! Play up Pompey
— Wes Knight (@knight37) August 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/_DanBarrett_/status/1157681871133859848?s=20
Really, really poor that
— Sam Harrington🏴 (@sampfcx) August 3, 2019
Taxi for jacket
— wobbs (@wobbs1962) August 3, 2019
Awful
— Ben Ellis (@benellissss) August 3, 2019
