‘The guy who looked at the fixture list might need to have a look at himself’ - Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill takes aim at EFL after successive trips to Portsmouth and Plymouth

His side made the outing to Fratton Park on Saturday just three days after making the long Tuesday night visit to Home Park.

Despite taking a first-half lead, Salop fell to a 2-1 defeat against Argyle as they made an eye-watering 486-mile midweek round trip.

And it was similar figures again this weekend as they returned to the south coast to face Pompey, adding another 401 miles

In total, his men travelled more than 887 miles in four days - picking up just one point on their journeys.

After their 1-1 draw against Pompey, Cotterill called their schedule ‘incredible’ as he took aim at the EFL following another long-haul trip.

He told the official Shrewsbury website: ‘It is (an excellent away point), we could've had two excellent away points in the last few days between Plymouth away on Tuesday and Pompey away today.

‘I don't know too many more difficult away games that we could've had back-to-back and I thought the lads to a man - with the travelling to Plymouth and back, the recovery, and then to go again at Pompey is an incredibly tough schedule.

‘There will be other clubs up and down the country who will say they have to do this and they have to do that when our fixtures get highlighted, but the thing is that there won't be too many clubs.

‘The travelling we've had to do during the last four days is incredible really. The guy who looked at the fixture list might need to have a look at himself tonight and think that might’ve been unfair.

‘I thought the boys were incredible. We were excellent at Plymouth and we were excellent again today.’

Cotterill once-again faced his former side after he spent 16 months in charge at Fratton Park between 2010 and 2011.

He -more than most - understood the difficult challenge against the Blues but insisted his players should be proud of the point.

‘‘The energy that we showed in that second half to get in blocks and put our bodies on the line, you don't do that without a really good team spirit.

‘I said to the boys in there, they should be really really proud of themselves tonight and their families should be really proud of them, really proud.

‘It is a really tough place to come, I know that, I spent a good time here - with the fans they get behind them, it's a really tough place to come.’