Ryan Tunnicliffe told of his delight at opening his Pompey goal account with the early strike that saw off Shrewsbury in what turned into a tight affair under the Fratton Park lights.

The midfielder has had a hand in all four goals Pompey have scored so far in the league and said he was pleased to get on the scoresheet - and to help the Blues win their third straight League One game.

He told the club website: 'It was great to score early on in front of a big crowd at the first game under the lights here for a while. I’ve got to be pleased because I’ve had a hand in all the goals we’ve scored — I probably wouldn’t have expected it, but I’m playing with confidence.

'Shrewsbury were quite direct and their front men were a real handful for us. They’d lost their first two, but are a better team than that record suggested.

“Sometimes you have to win ugly and you can’t always play how we did against Crewe at the weekend. So to show those levels of grit and determination to come away with the 1-0 victory is brilliant for us.

'We were hanging on a little bit at the end, but Sean Raggett was superb and was winning all the headers. It was a real team effort there and Ellis Harrison came on right at the end and was able to flick one away.

'You’ve got to be together and we tried to keep a high line, but the momentum was all with them and we didn’t want to concede. So you’ve got to dig in, put your head where it hurts, give that last bit of energy and hopefully get some luck as well.'

Defender and skipper Clark Robertson and winger Marcus Harness are injury doubts for Saturday's trip to Doncaster after coming off at the interval but neither has been ruled out of the Keepmoat trip.

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