Bolton refects on 1-0 win over Pompey
Shrewsbury Town defender James Bolton was delighted to score his first goal for the club in their 1-0 win over Portsmouth on Saturday.
Bolton netted in the 21st minute from a Shaun Whalley corner and Town hung on for the win.
“Coming to here is a big occasion, there’s a lot of history with the club and I really enjoyed it”, Bolton said.
“I’ve just seen it come through a lot of bodies and I’ve managed to get my foot onto it and it’s luckily gone in. I don’t score often so I didn’t know what to do celebration wise, but it was a brilliant feeling.
“I get a lot of chances normally in a season and either get lucky and score quite a few or, like last season, I scored one goal and it was a bit of a banger to be fair, a bit better than this one.”
Portsmouth came on strong in the second-half, but Bolton always felt Shrewsbury looked dangerous going forward.
“It was class”, admitted James.
“The boys really dug in and defended well. I always thought we showed a little bit of a threat going forward as well, even though we were on the back-foot a little bit, but we dug-in and got the result.
“I think we have been like that a lot this season. We catch teams on the counter, especially when they are attacking us, so it works into our favour a little bit and it was pleasing for us.”
Whilst Town had to ride their luck at times, they did manage to keep yet another clean-sheet and James reserved praise for Craig MacGillivray.
“You ask all the team and they will put their bodies on the line”, said Bolton.
“There’s been a few times this season when it’s been like that, but we all want to win, it’s in our nature and it’s good for the team.
“It’s credit to Craig that he’s come in and pulled off two worldie saves when he hasn’t really played all season. He hasn’t had that game time and you can get rusty, but today he didn’t show and rust and dug us out.”