Callum McKenzie reflects on Town’s 3-2 defeat to Carlisle United
Shrewsbury U18’s suffered their first defeat in four Youth Alliance League games on Friday, after narrowly losing to Carlisle.
Two goals by Archie Elmore and Kian Taylor was not enough for Town to come away with a point, as an 83rd minute strike by Taylor Charters secured victory for the visitors.
And Callum McKenzie has revealed that his ‘overriding emotion is disappointment.’
He said: “I suppose the overriding emotion is disappointment. I thought we didn’t deserve to go in at half time 2-1 down. I thought we played some good stuff, but we gave away some really sloppy goals.
“I thought we just lacked a bit of concentration and focus in key moments in the first half and it cost us. Apart from the goals in that first period, I thought we were pretty good. We edged it in terms of possession and chances created.
“We just couldn’t quite find the quality in and around the box, or the right cross but I wasn’t too disappointed at half time. In the second half we started quite well, we got the equaliser.
“I just thought the game became a little but stretched and maybe we could’ve got our shape a little bit, become a little bit more compact and play our way back into the game, and as a result, I think they picked us off a little bit and got that third goal.”
There were four changes to the side that beat Bury 2-1 last Saturday, which featured two new names and McKenzie has revealed the reasons behind making these decisions.
“We’ve just got a couple of trialists up from London to have a look at them. We thought it was a good time to get them in and have a look at them.
“I thought both of them did well so no problems there. It keeps the lads that didn’t start fresh and hungry to get back in the team next week.”
Jamie Valler, who was one of the trialists, played 72 minutes against Carlisle before being replaced by Ethan O’Toole. And Nigel Aris started the second half after replacing Liam Thomas.
After making the change at half time, McKenzie said: “It wasn’t necessarily tactical or injury.
“It was just so that we could get Nigel on and have a look at him and see what he could do in an 18’s game.
“He’s an U16, so I thought he did well when he came on. So, it was good.”