Steve Cotterill spoke to the media after Sunday afternoon's FA Cup third round game away at Liverpool.
Shrewsbury Town went down by four goals to one at Anfield on Sunday afternoon. Dan Udoh opened the scoring when he finished off a fabulous move just before the half-hour mark but Liverpool took the lead before half-time thanks to goals from Kaide Gordon and Fabinho. The hosts then put the result beyond doubt late in the second half with goals from Roberto Firmino and Fabinho - who completed his brace.
Steve Cotterill was full of nothing but praise for both sides after the match, celebrating Liverpool football club and his own players' performance.
On the game:
"It was a question or two [that Shrewsbury asked of Liverpool] but it was a step too far for us today. They had too many good players out there; recognised names as three of their back four and the young right-back Bradley did well today too so he's got Roberton, Konate, and Virgil van Dijk who was an absolute gentleman, by the way, coming into our dressing room afterward and saying well done and giving one of his shirts to one of our boys, he's an absolute top player and bloke. When you add that to the other boys they had playing today and you bring [Roberto]Firmino on and [Takumi] Minamino comes on and all the young boys who have come on today and been a credit to Liverpool football club.
"I don't think it was a 4-1 game, I think it was a 2-1 game but I think at the end there we're dead on our feet. You don't want to be giving those boys a chance. We've been really well looked after, a great day and a really great experience for our boys and a lesson too. They [Shrewsbury's players] will learn because they've been up against really top professionals and I think they'll see how much they [Liverpool] work off the ball to get on it, and that's a real credit to Jürgen and his staff for the way the football club's run. It's incredibly welcoming from the moment you walk in the door and even afterward, they're incredibly humble. I just finished talking to Jürgen there who's a gentleman and I wish Liverpool football club all the best, it's been a great day for us.
"The penalty just before half-time really was really hurtful to us. I think it was a penalty, I asked Ethan [Ebanks-Landell at half-time briefly because we didn't want to dwell on it and he said it was a handball but he felt he was pushed, but he didn't know if he was pushed by his own player. We went in at half-time, sorted out a bit of a problem, we go back out, the problem isn't there for five to ten minutes but after 15 minutes they [Liverpool] work the problem out, they're top players and it's a top football club.
"I've just said to the boys in there, I often tell them I'm proud of them when we win, but I'm really really proud of them today. When we saw their team sheet we thought 'oh crikey.' We thought they might have a few younger players in there who might not have to qualities in certain areas of Virgil van Dijk, [Ibrahima] Konate, [Andrew] Robertson, and Curtis Jones who's just coming back as well. I thought they were great today, Liverpool."
