Gaffer looks back on game against the Pilgrims
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst praised his sides battling qualities as they came from a goal down to rescue a draw against Plymouth Argyle.
Plymouth took the lead through Graham Carey, but Town struck back 12 minutes from time through Shaun Whalley’s curling strike.
“The lads kept going”, Paul said.
“It was a different sort of game. We’ve watched a bit of Plymouth and even at home they drop off the play a lot and let you have the ball, so it was a different challenge for the players.
“At one stage it looked like it was going to be the headlines that we didn’t want to see, but thankfully we got a good equaliser through Shaun and I’m delighted we’ve got something for the fans to shout about and something to make that journey a little bit better than it would have been.”
Despite the point, Paul was disappointed with certain aspects of his sides display, particularly the defending for Carey’s goal.
“I think you want to see the spirit and togetherness that we showed”, admitted Hurst.
“We had so much of the ball, but I didn’t think we perhaps used it as well as I would have liked. We didn’t get the 2 v 1’s or switch the play enough. We mentioned at half-time about it, but it didn’t happen enough.
“There weren’t too many scares realistically. It’s a fantastic strike from Carey, but it disappoints me because we know what ability he has on that left foot and we don’t close the ball down.”
Bottom side Plymouth played for large periods with 10-men behind the ball and Hurst wanted his side to show more guile in their attacking play.
“I think we’ve had some bits of play where we haven’t kept our shape to allow us to create certain positions”,
“They went three at the back and they’ve got three big centre-halves. They’ve got the midfield players in front, so for me it was always about trying to get the ball wide to create changes, but round the back rather than just throwing it in there.
“We had a lot of the ball and realistically we were the team that wanted to win the game. It looked to me like Plymouth didn’t want to lose it, which I appreciate because when you are down there it isn’t easy and it’s a point for them, but we’ve got to try and be a little bit cuter in possession.”