Gaffer's thoughts after the Capital One Cup defeat
How would you sum up your emotions after that display?
“We were fantastic today. We prepared the best we could today after a long bus ride down to London and if you would have said to me before the game that we would take this Palace side to extra time I would have snatched your hand off. We played so well with our passing and control on the ball so it was very pleasing. It’s another big step to building the profile of this football club.”
Did you think it was the correct call to award Palace a penalty which levelled the score?
“I was miles away from the penalty decision so I don’t know about that, we are disappointed to have given away two penalty kicks but overall we are delighted after our performance tonight. I think the score line was harsh in the end because we did so well to take it to extra time, we held our own for massive spells in that game despite the big names they have. It’s upsetting to be out of the cup but we didn’t go out with a whimper and I believe the fans will go home and think we represented them properly.”
You reverted back to 3-5-2 for the game tonight, what was your thinking behind that?
“We wanted to try our best to get some control in the game and we know that system has served us very well in these kind of games in the past. We knew that Crystal Palace probably didn’t know we could play that system so we were keen to deploy it and I felt we did a good job with it.”
James Wesolowski got his first action since January tonight, how pleasing was that?
“When it went to extra time I was thinking about the game on Saturday so it was great to be able to rotate and get James back out on the pitch. He has got some time under his belt tonight which is great for his recuperation.”
Are you happy with the cup run that has now ended?
“We enjoyed our spell in the cup. We are trying to build the profile of Shrewsbury Town so it is fantastic to come to places like this and to be able to compete. We are a good football team and we want to give a good account of ourselves which I believe we did in this competition. We are obviously disappointed to be out but we did ourselves proud.”
What did you think of the 700 strong Shrewsbury support?
“When I came out the tunnel I looked and wondered if it was Palace fans I could see because there were so many of them. Our fans are always brilliant, they never disappoint so I just hope they go home tonight and our proud to be Shrewsbury supporters.”
How nice was it for you and the team to be applauded by the home fans at the end of the game?
“Everyone here saw we gave it a real good go and looked a good side who wasn’t out of our depth so good football fans like the Palace fans noticed that today and quite rightly applauded my team off the pitch.”