Gaffer reacts to 2-1 win at Roots Hall
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst was delighted to see his side reach the magical 50 point mark with a 2-1 win over Southend at Roots Hall.
A Ben Coker own goal and a stunning strike from Ben Godfrey gave Town a 2-0 lead at the break and they managed to hold on despite Ryan Leonard hitting back for the Shrimpers.
“It was a heavy pitch”, said Paul.
“It cut up quite badly, so it wasn’t the easiest of surfaces to play football on, but I thought we tried to play at times. That second-half was about defending, but I said that I didn’t just want to sit back and I thought we still had enough of the game.
“They probably had one other chance and it ended up in Deano’s hands after he’s made one save. Other than that I thought we were well worthy of the points against what I think is a decent side, so great credit to the players.”
Ben Godfrey’s goal was his first in a Town shirt and came just days after he extended his loan spell and Paul praised Ben for his strike.
“What a goal”, exclaimed Hurst.
“We had a special goal here last season from Adam El-Abd in my first game in charge and we saw another one today. It’s probably one of the things you don’t associate Ben with, but it was a great strike.
“You can tell he doesn’t score many because he didn’t know what to do with himself and then he just sort of screamed a few times, but you want to see that passion and it meant a lot to him.”
Town are now on 51 points, the same amount as they finished on last season, but Hurst is taking everything one step at a time.
“It’s all credit to the players”, said Paul.
“It’s been a fantastic effort so far and the next effort is to get another point and beat last season’s total and then we will reassess again.
“It would be nice to get the result we all want on Monday because we’ve then got that little bit of a break and the last two breaks we’ve had we’ve lost that league game before it, so we will try and do everything we can to go again on Monday.”