Steve Cotterill spoke to the press following Shrewsbury’s 2-1 victory at Wycombe.
Town secured their first league win of the campaign thanks to a Matt Pennington header and last-gasp Luke Leahy penalty – with substitute Tom Bayliss winning the spot-kick in the 88th minute.
Shrewsbury began the game in a 3-4-1-2 formation. But despite temperatures of 35 degrees, Cotterill switched to a 4-3-3 system for the final ten minutes in a bid to find a winner.
And his players responded with skipper Leahy showing bundles of character to convert a late penalty right in front of 282 travelling Shrewsbury fans.
ON THE PERFORMANCE:
“It was a good win. (In the) first half I thought they were better than us. I felt we needed to liven up a little bit at half-time.
"We had spoken about, potentially, how they could score a goal and low and behold ten minutes later they do score it.
"I told them we needed to be better. But it’s funny, as soon as we got the equaliser we did all the things we should have been doing from the start of the game better.
"I don’t know whether that was the change in formation, I think the change in formation actually got us the win today.
"But you are worried when you do it if it’s going to work. I was mindful of that but I felt the change was worth the risk. Thankfully it worked and we got the penalty.
"And then Luke (Leahy) tucks it away nice so we’re delighted to come away with the points from what is a difficult venue.”
ON THE IMPACT OF HIS SUBS:
“I go for it most of the time it just depends on what degree I go for it. Sometimes you have to go for a calculated win and sometimes you go all in.
"I just wanted to get that all in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But I just wanted to get that first three points quickly in the season if we could.
"And I just felt towards the end, I felt we were strong, we looked stronger, we looked a fit team today in incredibly difficult circumstances. I am really pleased with that.”
ON PLAYING IN 35 DEGREES:
“I think maybe looking at this in the future, when we know we are getting prolonged heat waves like this, the players have to play in it but it is dangerous.
"I think we should look at that and maybe put the kick-off back. There is no reason when we know this that the kick-off can’t be put back three or four hours.
"If that had happened, we would have been fine with that and I’m sure Gareth (Ainsworth) would have been the same. At the end of the day, player safety is still paramount.
"I know football in our country is a bit of a religion but you have still got to think about the welfare of the players. You have to think about that.
"We could have put these fixtures back three of four hours and I don’t think anyone would have had a problem with that.
"You know what happens when you go on holiday, everyone says stay out of the midday sun from 12 until 3.
"But we’ve got players warming up a 1.30pm. And they are leaving the pitch at 5pm so we are toasting them at the highest point.”
ON PENNINGTON’S GOAL:
“We have worked a lot of long throws because we think we are dangerous from them.
"And I think when you have Chey Dunkley and Tom Flanagan, people will get attracted to them and then Pennington pops up at the far post.
"It's funny, when he headed it, I didn’t know if it was going in or it was going to loop over. I was actually looking at his reaction to find out if it was going to go in or not.
"But he was off so I knew it was a goal because I saw him off. It was a great header.”
ON THE PENALTY:
"Tom (Bayliss) didn’t start today because I felt it might be one of them ding-dong games and I felt it might be better to bring Tom into it and starting a little bit more solid because Wycombe have a strong ariel threat.
"We didn’t start with Tom but I felt he made a really good contribution when he came on.
"The referee was in no doubt with the penalty. And then you just hope Luke can stick it away but it’s nice to have him in those situations.
"He kept his cool. But that is the reason he is captain, that is why he is one of our leaders – for those pressurised situations. I actually think he doesn’t mind them, I think he enjoys them.”
