Steve Cotterill spoke to the media after today’s defeat in Sunderland.
Shrewsbury started slowly and went two goals down within 13 minutes before pulling two goals back early in the second half.
Josh Vela and Tom Flanagan struck for Salop before a late goal secured the points for the hosts.
Cotterill said he was very pleased with his side’s performance and said he was very disappointed for his players' sake.
On the game:
“We did play well, especially in the second half when I thought we were really good and we were good after the first 20 minutes. It took us 22 minutes to put together our first movement and it took us 26 minutes before we played with any arrogance on the ball, so that was the only disappointing bit for me and the goal in injury time. They [Sunderland] had a couple of opportunities when it got back to 2-2 where they got in and got the overloads and ended up flashing a few balls across the box and we didn’t want any of those to be an easy tap-in. We thought then if they cross the ball from deeper – which is how they scored the winning goal – we’d be okay, we didn’t think that’d be a goal we concede today. We’re normally very good at defending those, we’ve had long enough to look at it and I think Marko [Marosi] has shouted for it and I don’t know if that has put some hesitation in Tom [Flanagan] and Aaron [Pierre], but normally we would mop them up so we’re disappointed with those two aspects: the first 20 minutes of the game and the goal at the end there which is so cruel as we definitely deserved something out of that one today.
"We made a slight change at half-time because we have to get back in the game then. We were really good in the second half there and I’m so disappointed for the lads because they’ve given so much in that game and we’ve got a long journey home with no points in the skip.
“At the end of the day we’ve created enough to score at least another goal and another goal is difficult when you come away to clubs of this size because then all of a sudden – when it gets back to 2-2 – 30,000 or so fans can drive them on and it’s always difficult for the opposition when you come back into it. After that, the lads won’t quite know the magnitude of that performance, all they’ll see today is the result, they’ll see we lost 3-2. What they won’t know is what they’ve used and how well they’ve done to come back from 2-0 down, so there are a few lessons in there for them today but I can very rarely fault them and I can’t fault them today. Mix-ups in the box like that in front of 30,000 people are difficult because you don’t know if the defenders have heard him [Marko Marosi] shout for his ball. Should he have said it, shouldn’t he have said it, it’s irrelevant. I’m disappointed for the lads today, not with them, for them.”
On Elliott Bennett:
“He’s in there in a boot at the moment but I don’t know if that’s for protection or what because I haven’t seen it or had time to look at Elliott yet.”
