Gaffer's thoughts after the point picked up at the Proact
Shrewsbury Town Manager Paul Hurst admitted that there was an element of frustration as Town only managed to draw with Chesterfield.Town took the lead, but Chesterfield equalised just before half time and despite a number of second half chances, neither side could find the winner.
Town played some good attacking football in spells and Hurst was disappointed they couldn’t find the all-important second goal.
“I thought we could have won the game”, admitted Paul.
“Chesterfield might think similar. The crowd for Chesterfield were excellent, really got behind their team and I think that maybe made you feel as though you were under more pressure than you were.
“First half we got ourselves in front, started the game well. Then they had a lot of the ball without hurting us too much. We’ve spoken about set-plays and the threat, but we couldn’t stop it and then second half I thought we started well.
“We were on top for spells, looked more threatening with our attacks and had a fantastic chance to win it with Stevie (Humphrys) header, but in the end it’s a point rather than the three we would have liked.”
Humphrys header was the best chance of the second half and Paul was disappointed that it didn’t hit the back of the net.
“He’s headed it down which makes it hard for the ‘keeper, but anywhere either side of him would have taken a hell of a save to stop it”, said Hurst.
“You were waiting to start celebrating, but credit to the goalkeeper I think he’s having a good spell for them and doing well.
“But, particularly the time of it, it would have been a blow to them and difficult to come back and we would have backed ourselves to keep the ball out.”
Paul believed there was an improvement on last week’s poor performance against Coventry, but was still frustrated by the result.
“We passed it better at times, but there were other times where I didn’t know what we were doing.
“We were hurried and we were just kicking it up in the air at times, but when we did pass it we did look a threat.
“If Stevie had got the winner it would have been the icing on the cake of a substitute appearance where he looked very good.
“It was an improvement on last week. I don’t think it could have got too much worse. But there’s still an element of frustration that we haven’t managed to win a game.”
Hurst made five changes to the side which faced Coventry last weekend and he wanted to give opportunities to his squad.
“Realistically after last Saturday I thought there were only three players that maybe could have had any qualms if they had not been in the side”, Hurst said.
“There were a couple still today who I felt needed a major improvement, a couple who needed to stay at similar levels and it gave the other lads that came in a chance to impress.
“I want a squad of players that can play. I don’t want to have a first eleven and then lads that only get in the game if we have injuries.
“It’s about the squad and I think a couple of the lads that came in did well, but at the minute we are probably not quite getting to the position where the team will pick itself.”