Midfielder refelcts on Town's cup heroics
Shrewsbury Town reached the second round of the EFL Cup last night with a 2-1 win over Championship side Huddersfield Town.Louis Dodds grabbed the winner in the 83rd minute and was delighted to score.
“It was a good team performance in the second half and obviously I am delighted to score and it is a great win for us,” said Dodds.
“You normally expect to see the team sheet and it is a bit of an unknown because you don’t know what team they are going to play but I think it is a compliment to us that they played a full strength team and it shows what we are capable of.”
Shrewsbury got off to a perfect start when AJ Leitch- Smith found the net with twenty seconds on the clock and Dodds was glad both of them could get on the scoresheet at their new club:
“We have been planning every game to score in the first twenty seconds. Obviously sometimes it doesn’t work like that but we have been told to be positive and do the right things and then it will go for you.
“Me and AJ have come with goals from last season and obviously I have been at Vale for a long time so it is nice to come and get a goal as early as you can and show the fans what you can do.”
The midfielder praised Ivan Toney for creating his goal and he believes the 20-year-old will progress even further with time:
“I think Ivan has done really well because he has brought the ball down and held off the defender and set me up. I hit it on target and I think the keeper did me a favour. It is nice to score any goal but to do it against a good keeper like that makes it even sweeter.
“Ivan is a bit different to me. He is tall and powerful and can run the channels well. With more games and minutes he will get even better,” added the midfielder.
The former Port Vale man thought Shrewsbury improved as the game went on and created enough chances to deserve the victory:
“We were trying to get to terms with their formation. They had the two centre half’s splitting and one of the midfielders dropping in so it was like they had three at the back so me and AJ and the wide men had a lot of players to cover but when we got used to that I thought we looked good,” Dodds told the press.
“In the second half we changed the formation and we just started pressing a bit more and believing in ourselves. I think you can see that we created a lot of chances. Obviously they had a lot of the ball because they are good players but I think it is something that we can take a lot of positives from.”