Portsmouth forward John Marquis is now set to miss Pompey’s next three matches following the decision to reject the club’s appeal on the red card he picked up against Shrewsbury Town.

Marquis was controversially sent off during the second half of their crucial win at Shrewsbury on Saturday, with the forward having appeared to have got some of the ball, but also made contact with Harry Chapman. The forward had earlier in the game put Danny Cowley’s side into a 2-0 lead registering his 14th league goal of the campaign for Pompey.

Cowley confirmed after the game against Shrewsbury that Portsmouth would look to appeal against the decision, with them keen to prevent him missing out on the vital games coming up over the Easter period against Rochdale and Wigan Athletic and then the meeting at home to Burton Albion in two weeks. That comes with Pompey looking to continue their improvements since making a managerial change.

Portsmouth have now confirmed though that their appeal against the red card has been unsuccessful. That means he will now miss their next three games and Cowley will be needing to find an alternative upfront who can help the share some of the scoring burden that is often placed on the 28-year-old.

The verdict

This is a major blow for Portsmouth, but perhaps one that they would have been readying themselves for. You can understand why the club wanted to appeal against Marquis’ red card against Shrewsbury, but it did always seem unlikely that it was going to be overturned given there will have been many sendings off for similar tackles throughout the campaign.

Marquis is clearly a crucial player for Portsmouth and he has been having an impact already during Cowley’s first few matches in charge of the club. However, Pompey are more of a threat in the attacking third since the former Huddersfield Town boss took over so you would back them to be able to cope without the 28-year-old for a few games.

Portsmouth need to carry on picking up points, so they must find other ways to score goals during the next three matches. Were they to slip up now it would make finishing in the play-offs a real uphill challenge for the final few games when Marquis returns to action.