Connor Goldson backing team to bounce back from Bristol setback
Defender Connor Goldson has urged his teammates to "put it right" against Crawley Town on Tuesday evening to help steer Shrewsbury Town to safety.
Saturday's three-two defeat against Bristol City at the Greenhous Meadow leaves Town second bottom of League One, but the youngster says the run-in looks favourable between now and the end of the season, and he's hoping for a response against the Red Devils this week.
"We've got a chance to put it right in front of our own crowd," said Goldson. "Three points on Tuesday and it all looks a lot different. There are a lot of winnable games to come, we're playing eight teams below Bradford in 13th and if we get the points we'll leapfrog those clubs around us."
Goldson was critical of the goals conceded against City, and had sympathy for his central-defensive colleague Tamika Mkwandawire who scored at both ends.
"The defending was criminal," he said. "You can't expect to concede three goals and expect to win games, especially goals like that. The first was a great strike, but we gifted the two in the second half and you can't do that at this level. It was a great goal from Tam, it opened up for him but he said in the dressing room afterwards, it doesn't count for anything now. For the own goal, it was a great ball across the face, he has to touch it otherwise there was someone waiting behind him to score. He had to try to get it away somehow."
Goldson said there were no complaints about the awarding of the third goal, when Joe Bryan headed in from a corner, despite the best efforts of Joe Jacobson to clear it off the line.
"I'm not going to lie, from where I was, it looked like it went in," he admitted. "The officials gave it straightaway."
Town's best chance of rescuing a point came in stoppage time at the end of the game, when Goldson headed over the bar.
"I could have done better with it," he said. "I got under the header and it was one of those days when it wasn't meant to be for us. The positive is we have another game on Tuesday."
The result means Town's home form continues to desert them with only two points picked up from the previous nine home matches, with the last win against Notts County in November. It's all a far cry from when Shrewsbury went unbeaten at home for more than a year, in a run spanning 34 games.
He said: "I'm not being funny but when we went a year unbeaten, it was in League Two with a great team. We're in a harder league now, you look at Bristol City and their wage bill, a lot of them are on massive money. We're in a completely different league now, but our form at home is something we need to put right."
The encouraging aspect of Town's play recently has been the team creating chances, and Goldson says the introduction of former Wrexham manager Andy Morrell as Mike Jackson's assistant will only help improve the team.
"We scored two against City and three against Notts County," he said. "Andy Morrell looks good so far, he's working with the attacking players a lot, he was a good striker himself. He was with Miles Storey last week knowing he was going to start against City, and hopefully he can help with the movement, get them into scoring areas and help get a few more goals."
From a personal point of view, Goldson is happy with his form and says a loan spell at League Two side Cheltenham Town this season has proved beneficial.
"Since coming back and playing centre-half, I've felt comfortable," he said. "That's the position I played at Cheltenham and now I'm just concentrating on steering us away from relegation and doing my bit to help."