Thoughts after the Gillingham game from Town scorer
Despite scoring a brace Louis Dodds was bitterly disapoointed as Shrewsbury Town were defeated 3-2 in the last minute of the game against Gillingham. The midfielder is adamant his goals aren’t a consolation and the whole team is deflated:
“At half time I was delighted and maybe a little bit disappointed that I didn’t have the hat-trick with the chance I had. I think the whole team is fuming with the second half performance. To let three goals in and lose three points is bitterly disappointing. We will have to dissect it and go through what went wrong. I think second half they came out and threw caution to the wind and they had nothing to lose. In the end they have done well to go away with the three points.”
Dodds is determined to put the result behind them and give the fans something to cheer about on Tuesday night when they face Cambridge at home in the Football League Trophy:
“We were talking about it in the dressing room then, it was a real game of two half’s. In the first half we were spot on and in the end the disappointing thing is we didn’t bury them in the first half by scoring three or four. Then we let them back in and crumbled at the end of it. It is very disappointing but we can’t let it affect us too much. We have a game on Tuesday and we are looking forward to it and it is a competition we can do well in so we will be ready for it. I know the fans were disappointed at the end today and rightly so, so we really want to put on a performance on Tuesday for them.”
The 29-year-old felt Shrewsbury were impressive in the first half and thinks that is a result of the team starting to gel together:
“I thought we played to our strength and we looked good going forward. We looked steady at the back and the formation helped us. We were disappointed not to have more goals at half time. I think we are heading in the right direction and we are still trying to find the right formula. I think each game we are starting to know each other more and I think the fans can see it. With each game we are getting better and better. It will take until Monday for the lads to fully calm down and hopefully then we can have a little meeting and brush it under the carpet.”
The former Port Vale player feels the game could have gone either way but that Shrewsbury were punished for not being switched on until the very end:
“There are not many lads in the league that can open up from 30 yards out and bend one into the top corner like Jay Emmanuel-Thomas did. It is something we will have to look at and hopefully we can rectify it on Tuesday. Maybe for a neutral a draw would have been a fair result considering we had the first half and they the second. But you have to go right to the last second in football and that proved today with a last minute sucker punch. There were fine margins and we were so close to the three points and then within maybe 60 seconds we have lost it. Football is a frustrating game but with the game on Tuesday we have something to put right.”