Gaffer looks back on the victory over Oldham
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst praised his sides fighting spirit as they beat Oldham Athletic 2-1.
Goals from Stefan Payne and Jon Nolan gave Town their seventh victory of the season from eight games.
“It was very hard fought”, admitted Paul.
“I thought both teams had moments where they looked the better side. They will be wondering how they didn’t take the lead at the start of the second half when Doyle’s hit the post, but gradually we came back into it in the second period.
“I was really pleased with the way we started and then for some reason we didn’t quite get that second goal and we just seemed to take our foot off the gas a little bit.
We said at half-time that we thought the game was there for us to win, but we have come up against what is an improving Oldham side and I think in Craig Davies and Doyle they’ve got strikers who will give anyone a game if they get the service and are on it.
“The lads defended well at times. At other times they could have done better, but I’m not going to be too critical of what is an excellent victory for us.”
Jon Nolan scored the winner for the second time in the space of a week and Paul was pleased with his efforts today and the way the team got themselves into some decent positions.
“We know he’s got that in his make-up”, said Hurst.
“Ultimately it will be up to him because he’s got that energy to get up and down. He had a couple of other good positions where he was up there and it didn’t quite happen for him, but he’s a good footballer.
“I thought we played better today. We had some moments where we looked a good team again. It ebbed and flowed both ways, but it always looked like we could get in some positions, like where the goal came from to get that winning goal.”
Hurst admits that Town’s start has been a good one, but is now looking forward to the test of Blackburn Rovers next week.
“It’s impressive – you can’t get away from that”, Paul said.
“It’s too early to have a proper table, but what I would say is that the two halves of the table, with the exception of ourselves and Blackpool, is shaping up for the sides that were fancied.
“If you are top of the table after eight games you have clearly had a decent start and that’s what the players have done, but it probably doesn’t get much tougher than what comes next Saturday.
“But, we can’t go into it in a better place than where we are, so we’ve got to enjoy it and pit our wits to try and get another result.”