Another goal for Whalley and another 3 points for Town
Shaun Whalley has praised Shrewsbury Town for the control they showed in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Portsmouth at the Montgomery Waters Stadium.
Whalley himself and Stefan Payne were on the scoresheet for Salop, as Paul Hurst’s men claimed their second successive win in SkyBet League One.
“It’s a big three points and I thought we were good today,” Whalley told the press. “They didn’t have many spells in the game when they put us under pressure, so we fully deserved the win.
“We’ve had a tough spell recently, but the last two performances have been really good, today was even better than last week.
“We controlled large parts of the game, and you’re always going to get a good work-rate with us, but at times we showed real quality.”
Whalley had a penalty saved by Luke McGhee after 55 minutes, but the Whiston-born attacker made amends for his miss shortly after, tapping in following McGhee’s save from Jon Nolan’s shot.
“I was really disappointed in the penalty, obviously, and I felt like I’d let the lads down,” he said. “But I knew I had to try and get a goal and get us ahead in the game after that.
“I was determined to get a goal, it was pure relief really, so thankfully I’ve followed up and he’s just palmed it straight out to me and I’ve tapped it in.
“It’s nice to score, but I was really proud of the performance from the lads today, everyone worked really hard and showed a lot of quality as well.”
Next up for Hurst’s men is a trip to league leaders Wigan Athletic on Boxing Day, where they will look to replicate the 1-0 win from earlier in the season.
“One hundred per cent these are the kind of games you want to be involved in,” he said. “So, hopefully it will be a great game.
“Wigan won 7-0 today, and 4-0 last week I think, but they were both away from home and they’re at home on Boxing Day, so that might be lucky for us.
“They’ll be favourites and rightly so, but we’ll go there and try our best, and try to put on a good performance, and bring some points home.”