Jacko’s thoughts after the 1-1 draw with Crawley Town at the Greenhous Meadow
Town grabbed another point in their fight for survival and at the final whistle there was a belief around the Greenhous Meadow that the home side should have taken all 3 points. At the half-time whistle there was little of that belief from the stands after another puzzling below par performance from Town.
At the break Jermaine Grandison came on and Ryan Woods pushed into the heart of the midfield and a different Shrewsbury Town turned up. A Paul Parry goal 10 minutes into the half lifted the players and the crowd and after that the lion’s share of the chances fell to Town. Chances, penalty shouts, hitting the post twice but still Town had only the one goal to show for it at full time.
After the game manager Mike Jackson spoke to the press and was asked if he felt frustrated about the result:”Yes I am, on the performance that we put in during the second half I think we should have taken all 3 points.
“Fair play Joe Anyon has made a fantastic save right at the end and if that had gone in it would have been a killer especially after the chances that we had.
“It’s frustrating that we didn’t win the game but the reaction in the second half and towards the back end of the first half was good.”
At the break the introduction of Jermaine Grandison and the switch of Ryan Woods to midfield gave Town a different outlook. Jacko didn’t really say much to influence this other than the switch and his belief that his side could turn things around:”I just said that they had to believe, at the moment we just seem to be waiting for something to happen, I guess that is down to anxiety and nerves.
“We see them ready to go out there but once they are out on the pitch there is a little realisation of the situation that we are in and that is understandable.
“But the players have to do what they did in the second half, obviously we changed the shape a little bit, we’ve got Woodsy into the middle of the park and Jermaine has come on and that changed the dynamic of it.
“Woodsy in there is fetching and carrying, he is a top player in that position and maybe going forward we have to use him in the right way. He’s been playing right-back for a while now so maybe it’s time that we go and get our own right-back.”
It was a good to see Jermaine Grandison back in the side and Mike was full of praise for the big centre-back:”I thought he did great, when he goes on those bursts he’s like a dragster and he gets the crowd going.
“He’s strong and hard to get off the ball, he flattened a few of them tonight with his strengthen and credit to him as he made the difference.
“I told him before the game that he would be playing no matter what on Saturday so maybe that gave him a bit of a boost.”
Paul Parry was on the scoresheet again for Town and his experience is starting to help the young Town side to build some performances and results:”Paz has been a different class, he’s got goals in him and he’s had another one there where he’s smashed it against the post and we should have been a little quicker to react.
“His energy and his work rate for the age he’s at is outstanding, I can’t speak highly enough of him.
“He’s been a big part of that bit of quality that we needed as we’ve had a number of other chances tonight which we haven’t taken.
“Bahrudin has also come on and shown some flashes of quality and genius, I’m made up for him as I had a chat with him yesterday.”
There was a big shout for a penalty in the second half after Joseph Mills had been blocked off in the box, the ref was having none of it but Jacko thought it was a clear penalty kick:”I think it’s a penalty, we’ve not had one all season and you think to yourself go on give us that little bit of luck.
“I think we should have won the game on the second half showing but we’ve got to take that and make sure that we start the games with no fear.”
With results elsewhere going in Town’s favour only picking up the one points this evening might be seen as a missed opportunity to narrow the gap to see Town come out of the relegation spaces:”We must had done something wrong and someone must have a voodoo doll of us somewhere.
“It might be a missed opportunity but we’ve taken a point while other sides have lost so it just claws a little bit back on everyone else.
“We’ve got the Wolves game and then we’ve got our game in hand at Colchester.
“We are still in there grafting and scrapping and the response we had in the second half gives us hope.
“The fans were great and got behind us with a great atmosphere, but we gave them something to shout about.”
Saturday sees Town make the short trip to Molineux to take on an inform Wolverhampton Wanderers side. It will be a tough test for Jacko and his side but one that they are really looking forward to:”It’s a great game and we are going to the club who are top of the league and you can’t get a better challenge than that.
“No one expects anything from us and I’ve just said to Muzzah (Andy Morrell) that we’ll need to do something to surprise them, he replied ‘maybe we don’t turn up’!
“We will work towards that game on Thursday and Friday and then what a great place to play your football.
“Hopefully you will see on Saturday that we give a good account of ourselves and with a good following they will see our fight to give them hope.
“I want the players to believe in themselves, I believe in them and they’ve shown what they can do and if they do that we will have a chance.”