Defender frustrated after Blades defeat
Zak Whitbread was frustrated after Shrewsbury suffered defeat at home to Sheffield United. But the defender thought the team gave it their all:“The main thing was that we didn’t get anything out of the game. That is the be all and end all whether we deserved it or not. We put in a shift and we have battled and shown character to try and get something out of the game. We are disappointed with the two goals because we were right in it. I think they were the only two shots they had on target but we have to move on to the next one now and believe we can get more points on the board.”
The 32-year-old feels the squad can learn from the defeat:
“I think we did have the momentum and we felt we were in the ascendency but when they score it is obviously always a bit of a hammer blow and I thought they took confidence from the goals. I thought we showed character to persist to the end of the game to try and get something out of it. We pushed and created chances but in the end it is not the result we wanted but we will learn from it and there are games coming up that we need to learn from and get something out of.”
Kyle Vassell missed a penalty which would have put Town ahead early on but Whitbread had sympathy for the striker:
“That is football and he stepped up to take it and he missed. We are not going to ignore him in the dressing room or anything like that though. It is just football and it has happened and he will have to dust himself down. He is a confident lad and he will be back scoring goals again without a doubt. He works too hard and is too talented for that not to happen. I thought when he missed it we got our game heads back on and concentrated straight away so we can’t look at that as too big of a point in the match.”
The former Norwich City defender believes Shrewsbury will be ready to scrap it out over these final four games of the campaign:
“All we know is we are in a fight and we have to show character and battle until the end of the season no matter what and get as many points as we can. We don’t want to be leaving it to the last day but if it comes down to that we have to be ready and stand up and be counted because this is the business end of the season. It is make or break so we are well up for it and we will challenge it head on.”