Callum McKenzie reflects on Town's 2-5 loss to Sunderland.
The young Shrews bowed out of the FA Youth Cup this evening as they lost to a talented Sunderland side.
Town's academy were 4-0 down in after the first half but showed some fight and determination in the second half to pull two goals back.
Callum spoke to Shrewsweb shortly after the final whistle and gave his initial reaction to the game.
"Disappointing, to say the least, a lot of preparation went into tonight's game, nothing surprised us with the way they set up, we felt we knew we could hurt them.
"I thought we started the game well in the first 45 minutes, we had a good chance early on pretty much after kick-off then we had another good opportunity put into the box and then they go down with the first attack and score, that's the quality they have got.
"I think whenever they got the ball into the final third they gave us a problem and we didn't defend our box very well, we were disappointed with our shape, we were a little bit too deep which had an impact on our midfield players, we couldn't get tight as we were all over the pitch.
"When you give players of that kind of calibre space and time, they are going to hurt you but I thought second half we rolled our sleeves up. I was pleased the lads did that because at half time that could have gone one or two ways. They showed some character, got some pride back and I think we had a good chance just after half-time. In football you never know if that goes in you've got a bit of time on your hands."
Town had a big penalty appeal waved away at 4-1, Callum struggled to comprehend why a penalty wasn't awarded.
"I don't know how the referee hasn't given that as a penalty, the fourth official said it was a penalty, I think everyone in the ground thought it was a penalty but the referee thought there was a reason that it wasn't but that's part of the game you have to get on with it. If it was given and we score that there's still 20 minutes left in the game for us to kick on, I thought we were on top at that stage as well."
The team were visibly disappointed after the full-time whistle, Callum explained what the mood was like in the changing room.
"They're down in the dumps, they've put a lot of work in over the last week, the staff as well, a lot of work has gone into this game and they've been first class.
"They are disappointed because they've let themselves down, they just for whatever reason didn't cope well after each goal was scored in the first half. It's very difficult to wrestle the game back.
"They are very down but it's football so you've got to pick yourselves up, they've got a weekend off now, there's still lots to play for in terms of league targets and some of the second years need to push on because they don't know what's going to happen in terms of pro contracts."