Gaffer's thoughts after FA Cup draw with Fleetwood
Town boss Paul Hurst couldn’t hide his frustration as Fleetwood held his side to goalless draw in the FA Cup second round, despite seeing Shrewsbury hit the woodwork three times.Efforts from Louis Dodds, Junior Brown and Ivan Toney all came within centimetres of breaking the deadlock, but instead the teams will go again at Highbury a week on Tuesday.
Hurst rued the missed opportunities and suggested that Dodds’ effort especially might have found it’s way into the net if the circumstances were different.
He said: “When you hit the woodwork three times, particularly Dodds’ effort which hits the inside of the post and you’re just waiting for it to roll across the line but it somehow doesn’t.
“Maybe if you’re on a good run, I dare say that maybe it goes in off the post.”
Despite the chances that went begging, Hurst remained pleased with the performance of the team, especially from a defensive perspective.
“I think Jayson has made one real save of any note, and in the second half with those efforts, we played on the front foot.
Hurst continued: “We changed the shape, and it’s the first time we’ve played that way and I thought the lads got to grips with that quite well and caused Fleetwood problems.
“I understand that fans want to see goals, but at the same time, one thing that we’re proving to be is hard to beat.”
Hurst was only able to name five substitutes today and a multitude of problems have plagued the Town squad.
“Injuries, suspensions, illness, it just left us a little bit short today.
“Blacky [Ian Black] took a knock on his ankle, I don’t mean it to be disrespectful but there weren’t too many options there for us.”
20-year-old Dom Smith came into the side at right-back and Hurst has high expectations of the youngster after a promising performance.
“I always feel that Dom is slightly nervous, because I know what it means to him, and that’s a positive, it’s just a case of balancing those nerves and the will to want to do well.
He went on: “Defensively he did very well, I think on the ball sometimes he has to be a little bit calmer and see the pass quicker but he’s a young boy.
“I know full well when he plays in that position that his defensive qualities are going to come to the fore.”
Town will now travel to Fleetwood on 13th December, and the boss is hopeful that the location can offer some motivation to his team.
“We are now going back to the ground where the defeat happened, so it’s even more of a chance to try and put things right.”