Gaffer reflects on Bradford draw
Shrewsbury Town Boss Paul Hurst was proud of his player’s fighting spirit as they gained a point against Bradford City.
Town went down to 10-men for the final half-an-hour as Omar Beckles was sent-off for two yellow cards, but they didn’t give up and could even have won it late on.
“Obviously things change in games and the red card was a big turning point”, said Hurst.
“I thought both teams had spells but I thought we were really starting to get on top of the game and even with 10-men I thought we had enough moments in the game. I didn’t feel that they used the man advantage anywhere near well enough and we still could have won the game.
“First-half we started a bit slow and there were a couple of good saves from Dean Henderson, but after that we’ve had the best chances to win the game. Jon Nolan’s two chances were the best moves in the night.
“I think we were the ones that played better football, but those chances that we haven’t taken made it a 0-0 result. But, you have to give the players a lot of credit because with 10-men the effort was there for all to see.”
The main talking point of the game was the red card for Omar Beckles and Hurst felt it Beckles was slightly naïve in the situation.
“They obviously wanted him sent-off before that, but my first impression of that one was that it wasn’t a foul”, said Paul.
“Second-Half, when he does get sent-off, it probably looks like it is. I haven’t seen it back, but I can understand why he certainly has been sent off. It was a bit naïve on his part, well very naïve in truth, and that makes it more difficult, but we tried to be positive and still tried to win the game.
Town certainly showed their character in the second-half and Paul reserved special praise for his two widemen.
“They’ve both put a shift in tonight”, Hurst said.
“They ended up having to play as wing-backs and both had some good runs. Rodders has had a couple of good efforts. The one second-half looked extremely close and he forced a save from the ‘keeper in the first-half as well.
“That was more like us and that’s all I asked. Of course I would have loved to have won the game, that’s what we came here to try and do, but in the end, playing half-an-hour with 10-men, you can’t be too critical, we just couldn’t quite force the winner.”