Shrewsbury Town

Graham Turner blamed his side’s profligacy in front of goal as one of the primary reasons behind Town’s 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United. David McAllister’s fourth minute goal was enough to land all three points for the Blades but Town could and maybe should have come away with a point at least.

“The level of performance again was reasonable,” said Turner, “and after the setback of an early goal it was just the lack of composure or cutting edge in the box that was missing. We had enough quality balls and enough scrambled balls in there and we shouldn’t have drawn a blank here – we had enough chances to score goals.”

Turner thought his side were a bit flat-footed for the goal and didn’t prepare well: “I didn’t think we set ourselves up well enough for the throw in and we’ve got caught out at the back post,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened but it did and we had a long time to get back in the game. I thought for the best part of that time we used it well up to the 18 yard box. I think Chris (Weale) had a decent save to make in the second half late on. It’s a difficult situation because we’ve gone to Leeds and lost 4-0 and I thought the score flattered them. And again here we’ve lost a game and not scored but the performance was very close to being a really good one.”

Even though the goal came early, it gave Turner’s side a chance to show its character. “I thought we started the game reasonably well and certainly ended the half really well. Apart from a spell in the middle where they were on top, we controlled large parts of it. We got the ball out to Paul Parry time and again and there were so many crosses going in that we should have scored. He (Parry) might have done better in getting into better shooting positions. I watched us in training this week scoring for fun in the shooting sessions but I don’t know whether it’s the occasion that gets to players and they become a little hasty. It could have been difficult having gone behind early on but we defended quite well for long periods.”

The best chance for Town came late in the first half when Mark Wright looked odds-on to level although GT didn’t have the best of views: “I assume that was our best chance but I couldn’t see whether the ball hit the post and came out to Wrighty or whether he could have got to it before it hit the post. It looked like a little tap-in and they don’t come much easier than that. We haven’t spoken about it but that seems like the easiest chance for us. We don’t want the side to feel any satisfaction in a defeat because Tuesday’s a new day and a new game and we have to make sure we’re ready to start again. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because we didn’t do our jobs in front of goal so we have to be better in front of goal on Tuesday night. We’re not crestfallen as we’ve come to a club that could easily have been playing in the Championship today and done quite well. That said, if you can’t play at a place like this you can’t play anywhere. That was the challenge and to a large extent we’ve met that challenge quite well.”