Defender's thoughts after the the defeat away to Millwall
Mickey Demetriou was delighted to be back in the team but disappointed with the result as Shrewsbury were defeated 3-1 at Millwall:
“It was good to be back in the team but unfortunately it wasn’t the right result. I thought we played well for 60 minutes but a set piece let us down. We just switched off and a couple of individual errors led to them punishing us like good teams do. We can bounce back and if we look at the goals today we can break them down and sort out the individual errors and then make sure we don’t do that next weekend.”
The 26-year-old admitted it has been a frustrating season for him so far:
“It has been frustrating. Last season was brilliant for me coming into the Football League and getting promotion. I was disappointed this season not to continue my progress with the team but I know I can do it and hopefully I can now prolong my stay in the team. I never gave up hope because if you do that there is no point being a footballer. The gaffer was honest with me and gave me the chance to go on loan and play games down at Cambridge. I played 20 games there but injury cut is short. I have been working hard on the training ground to try and earn my chance in the team here and now with injuries and suspensions I have got it and hopefully can keep it for next weekend.”
“The gaffer made his decision not to include me earlier on and I have to accept that. I can’t just sulk and sit I have to think about long term and wait for that chance when I do get it like today. The gaffer has his plans and hopefully I can now stay in the team and be a part of that and play at this level, I know I am good enough.”
Demetriou also made his first appearance for the club as a goalkeeper in the game following Mark Halstead's red car:
“That was my first time in goal at a proper level. It was the 90th minute so someone had to step in. Abs wanted to go in but he is a big man in our midfield so I thought I should try. Mark told me to go the right way for the penalty but unfortunately I couldn’t get a hand to it. It was a great penalty to be fair. I would rather have stayed out at left back.”
Mickey felt the side played well despite the defeat but the focus now turns to the preparation for the Bradford game and getting the right result:
“We need to go again next week and forget this and take the positives and not switch off at set pieces. Larnie took his goal very well, the ball from Sullay was unbelievable and it shows what we can do when we are playing our best. I think we could have taken a couple more chances today but it wasn’t to be.”
“We know we are good enough to avoid the drop so we just have to do that. We showed it for 60 minutes today and for 60 minutes last week. We just have to go again and we had a couple of chances today which we could have taken. We need to go for the full 90 minutes in the next game.”
“Every game is a hard game in this league especially when you are at the bottom of the table. We need to do well in these next two home games and get the crowd behind us and get the right results. Next weekend is a big match and hopefully we can get the right result. We need to take one game at a time and get all the points we can. I don’t think the recent results are a reflection of how we played in those games. Wigan took their chances and so did Millwall today. They took their chances well but for 60 minutes we were the better team.”