Graham Turner's thoughts after the 3-2 win away to Worcester City
Town finished their pre-season game programme with a 3-2 win away to Blue Square North side Worcester City.
The visitor’s got off to a great start with Terry Gornell slotting home early on but the homeside took the advantage with two converted spot kicks. Mark Wright levelled things in the first half and in the second a second goal from Gornell gave Town the win.
It was a tough test for Town though with Worcester City proving to be good opponents ahead of Town's Capital One Cup trip to Elland Road next Saturday.
After the game Graham Turner spoke to ShrewsWeb to give his thoughts on the game:”We showed me some concern with the way we defended at times in the first half but saying that we were promising going forward with some good passing movement, good movement off the ball and good crossing which created good chances.
“We will need to have a look at the defensive side of things through training this week and put it right as we conceded too many simple opportunities for them.”
Both of Worcester's goals came from penalty kicks after some sloppy defending from Town but the manager had no problem with the decisions:”I wouldn't disagree too much with them, the second might have been a little harsh but there must have been contact there.
“I wouldn't fall out too much with the referee about those decision as it was our poor defensive play that led to those situations,”
Once again Town were lively around the opposition goal, with Gornell adding two goals to his pre-season tally and Mark Wright getting one. Town have notched a number of goals over pre-season and that has been a big plus for the manager:”We have been looking for the movement of the players, passing the ball and keeping possession and the players have been taking that on board.
“For our second goal against Wolves we strung something like 20 passes together before scoring.
“Players have to be clever enough to see the final ball, the decisive through ball or the important cross and one or two times tonight I thought we did that.”
After seeing the game remain at 2-2 for a long period it was a lovely team goal that saw Town leave Worcester with the victory:”We broke very well during the second half a number of times and perhaps should have done better than we did.
“The final goal was a well worked team goal, we can do that and are more than capable of doing that again.”
There were a couple of faces missing from the Town defence with Jermaine Grandison and Michael Hector not travelling to St George's Road:”Jermaine has got a slight knock and has been feeling that muscle so wasn't fit enough to take part tonight.
“The same was with Michael Hector so neither of them were considered fit enough to take part.”
The focus now turns from the pre-season training programme to the work on the training pitch ahead of the first competitive game of Town's 2012/13 season. The action gets underway next Saturday when Town travel to Leeds United in the Capital One Cup:”We've got a practice game with TNS next week and we've got a number of players who probably haven't had a fair crack of the whip when it comes to getting game time and that will be an opportunity for them to play 90 minutes.
“After that we will take stock of things as we prepare for the game against Leeds United.
“Up to this point we've had pre-season training but from Monday it will be the routine of preparing for the games.
“It is a good game to look forward and a big challenge for the players to go out and perform like we have done against three Championship sides over the pre-season programme.”