Shrewsbury Town’s left-wing-back George Nurse spoke to the media after yesterday’s 0-0 draw at home to Rotherham United.
Nurse won Man of the Match for his efforts in the fixture and came close to scoring on two occasions, as well as keeping a clean sheet.
Town dominated their visitors in the second half and deserved all three points from the fixture as a result.
Nurse discussed the game and his goalscoring ambitions for the season. He also praised the team’s fitness levels at this stage of the campaign.
On the game:
“I think we were a bit slow in the first half, a bit reactive to things, but definitely in the second half, we were on the front foot. I think we put them under massive pressure and I think it proves you can beat anyone in this league. I know we didn’t do that this time but I think we fully deserved three points.
“He [Steve Cotterill] demands what he wants from us and we try and implement that in the second half and we’ve done that, the only thing we didn’t check off was scoring a goal but on another day we do.
“It’s been a tough week with three games but to us defenders, a clean sheet is like a goal to us, so we strive to get them and we did today which was good. I think that’s a credit to the lads, it’s not just the back five who keep clean sheets, it’s the whole team. We’ve got that bond now, we work hard for each other and I think it’s showing in the results.”
On his chances to score:
“It’s a good strike and obviously I needed to hit it well, but it didn’t go in unfortunately and I’m disappointed it wasn’t the winner. It just seems to be that any goal I score seems to be one like that [his screamer for Newport County against Carlisle United] and on another day that goes in, but this time it didn’t. I think Penno [Matt Pennington] was on the rebound for the shot and we said it would’ve been brilliant if he’d have scored but yeah, I don’t care who scores so long as it goes in. I always say I’m due one [goal] a season, so hopefully, I can get one this season. I don’t think I meant it [his cross-cum-shot effort], maybe tired legs at the end of the day but yeah, on another day maybe that goes in as well. I’d like to do more than that, [I’d like to] get a few assists too but some goals and assists for the rest of the season would be brilliant.”
On the team’s fitness levels:
“Pre-season was tough, I think if you ask any of the boys, [they’ll say] it was hard. We try and do running when we can and obviously if games are called off, we run, we put that work in so we can be fit in these games and run all over teams.”
