Gaffer aggrieved with late penalty blow in loss to near neighbours
A hotly disputed late penalty gifted Wolves a 1-0 victory at the Greenhous Meadow, handing Town boss Graham Turner a bitter pill to swallow after his team’s all-action performance.
Jon Taylor was adjudged to have handled an 84th minute header by referee Phillip Gibbs, leading to the winger being sent off and Bakary Sako dispatching the resulting spot kick to leave Turner frustrated with the ‘inconclusive’ decision.
“Without doubt I feel hard done by,” said Turner.
“To have gone down to a goal like that where I’ve watched it from re-runs behind the goal and in slow-mo from the side and it’s still inconclusive, even when you stop it at the point where its made contact with Jon.
“The referee’s took up a position where he’s got a lot of bodies between him and the ball and he’s done well to spot that if it is handball, because we can’t see it.”
Despite the defeat, Turner was pleased with the performance, but bemoaned his side’s inability to convert their chances.
“I think there were some good parts in it and some poor parts, but what I know is that we’ve had the best chance of the match and we should’ve taken the lead and the three points.
“We didn’t hit the target enough times. I know the goalkeeper made one or two saves, but I felt from good positions we should’ve made him make more saves
“It’s hard to accept at the moment that we’ve lost the game. We’ve worked tremendously hard over the last three games so to come out with only two points is disappointing.
“What we’ve got to do is maintain the belief. We could’ve passed it better second half, we had the opportunity and time to, but we’ve just got to pick ourselves up now.”
Turner admitted that three matches in a week may have taken its toll, but with a week to prepare for the trip to Bradford, he’s optimistic his team can bounce back.
“After the three matches, with all the travelling, it’s been tough, but we’ve got a week now to recover and we’ve got a week to prepare for Bradford.
“It’s a strong and tough league, and you have to learn quickly. More importantly than the decision that went against us, we should not have allowed a free header to come in at our goal and we’ve got to start improving on things like that.”
Watch the full interview with GT on SHREWS PLAYER