Gaffer's thoughts after defeat at stadium MK
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst was disappointed that Town didn't get anything from their game with MK Dons but admitted they had come up just short on the day.Town were shocked early on when MK Dons score twice in the space of five minutes and despite a late Stephen Humphrys goal they were unable to get on terms.
Paul admitted that the early goals gave his side a mountain to climb.
“I think we gave ourselves a mountain to climb with going two goals down so early in the game”, Paul said.
“The first goal is a good goal for them and that gave them a lift. Then it’s a clever set play that they do and Toto gets blocked which means he can’t get tighter and it flicks off Jack Grimmer for the second goal and at that point you are thinking that we could be on the end of a really heavy defeat.
“We gradually got into the game and had a chance on half time which we couldn’t take. Overall, we’ve had enough chances today without being great to have taken something from the game, but the goal just came too late for us to get anything from the game.”
Hurst acknowledged that Town didn’t quite hit the levels they are capable of and that made things difficult against a good MK Dons side.
“We were certainly a little bit below the levels we have come to expect”, Hurst said.
“Whether that is because of the early goal which makes things a little bit more difficult mentally, but I just felt we lacked a little bit of urgency at times in our play and in our pressing.
“They make the pitch extremely big. They’ve got some very good players for League One and some of them started the game really well.
“The longer it went we threw a few more bodies forward, but we can’t have too many complaints that we didn’t get a result, albeit that we could have got a point in the end.
Tyler Roberts missed out with a slight hamstring injury, but Paul didn’t believe that had a big impact on the result.
“It’s very easy to look at players who are not involved”, said Paul.
“I’ve had it many times as a manager where someone who is not in the team suddenly becomes a better player. Tyler has done well for us, there’s not getting away from that, and maybe he could have picked up some different sort of areas, but who knows?
“There’s certainly been some lads today that haven’t been at their best and I think we are a team that has to be completely on it to give ourselves the best chance of getting results.
“So, we dust ourselves down and go again on Tuesday against another team that’s probably not as high up the league as they would like.”