Shrewsbury Town boss Steve Cotterill spoke to the media after today’s 0-0 draw away at Cambridge United.
Town dominated the majority of the game and had an abundance of chances to take the lead at the Abbey Stadium.
Simultaneously, Salop were tight at the back and reduced their hosts to just five shots, none of which were on target.
Cotterill was full of praise for his side and the travelling fans. He also explained the absence of assistant manager Aaron Wilbraham and lead analyst Ben Cirne.
On the game:
“I don’t think we can get any closer without actually winning it but with how the lads have been and what we’ve had over the last couple of weeks, I think it’s been a great effort from them. As I said to them when I first came here, if you can’t win you don’t get beat, but trying to win is everything; winning isn’t everything but trying to win is. We tried to win that game today and we’ve come up a little bit short and apart from putting the ball in the back of the net, I don’t think there was anything else we could’ve done today.
“We’ve had 20+ shots at their goal and they haven’t had a shot on target and it’s a tough place to come. I think Cambridge have done very well this season for example look at their exploits in the FA Cup – there’s nigh on that team who beat Newcastle [United] – so I think we’ve played well here on a difficult day. I’m delighted with the players for their efforts.
“We always try to win but sometimes on these days you have to do the unsavoury things. They had [Joe] Ironside back in their team today – that’s always a big plus for them – and we managed to limit him to no look at the goal today which is a positive for the backline.”
On the absence of Aaron Wilbraham and Ben Cirne:
“They’ve tested positive for COVID. We didn’t have them yesterday and we didn’t have them today, but they were part of the team that were preparing for Cambridge during the week. They’ve both had it quite rough and I know you don’t have to isolate but it was more a case of them actually feeling quite rough so our best wishes go out to them.”
On the 477 travelling fans:
“Without actually tapping the ball over the line, I think they’ve seen their team give everything today and that’s why they’ve given them that reception at the end. It was brilliant from them as well, we just wish we’d sent them home with three points but we tried to do that.”
