Gaffer reflects on the defeat to Blackburn Rovers
Shrewsbury Town Boss Paul Hurst didn’t think his side did quite enough to earn anything from their game with Blackburn Rovers.
Town were level at the break, but two goals in 10 minutes meant that Rovers came out on top and Paul felt his side weren’t at the races for long enough.
“I thought the last 15 minutes of the first-half we did well, started to pass the ball, and I thought at the start of the second half we were the better side, but then contributed massively to giving them the second goal and then after that I think we made Blackburn’s job easy.
“I don’t think we got cut open or anything like that, but they just returned the ball and competed, picked up second balls, played at a good intensity, got the crowd behind them and in the end we didn’t have enough answers for that.”
It was the first time this season that Town have conceded three goals and Hurst was particularly disappointed with the defending for the second.
“The first is a free-kick that’s gone inside the post, so that is a good free-kick”, Paul said.
“The second is a clearance in our own box that we seem to panic about. Danny Graham hit’s a good strike that hits the post and he’s the first to react. I’m not sure whether or not we could have done better with that in terms of reacting, but he was certainly on the move.
“And the third one I can see why a penalty’s been given, but I think he’s almost kicked it out of play and then jumped into Deano. The referee is a good position to make his mind up and that made it even more difficult to get anything out of the game.”
There were a number of talking points throughout the game with Referee John Brooks at the heart of them but Paul didn’t feel the decisions changed to result.
“It didn’t look a penalty from where I was (Raya’s foul on Morris) and I didn’t think it was a free-kick for their first goal”, said Hurst.
“I think you are better asking Tony Mowbray what his thoughts are about the referee because he won the game and anything I say could be taken the wrong way because we are on the wrong side of defeat.
“I don’t think the refereeing decisions have cost us the game but I think there perhaps could be a shared opinion about decisions that have taken place this afternoon.”