Paul Hurst hails near-perfect Shrewsbury Town display
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst hailed his side's almost perfect display as they secured FA Cup progression in the boss's Greenhous Meadow debut.
Salop hit three goals without reply as League Two Barnet were put to the sword and Town made the hat for the second round draw on Monday night.
First-half strikes from Mat Sadler and AJ Leich-Smith were followed by a Jack Grimmer peach as Town backed-up an impressive point at Southend last week in Hurst's first game in charge.
The boss was delighted at his side's defensive performance, standing tall to the giant physical presence Barnet posed, dealing with long throw upon long throw.
It was just their second clean sheet of a challenging season and ended a run of just one shutout in 32 outings.
"It was pretty much perfect. I'm going to say it, there was a clean sheet, and just a win generally," said the new Salop chief.
"One thing I said to the players before the game was that it'd been a couple of months and they put a shift in.
"I thought they started a little nervous in truth but when we got the second goal in particular I thought you saw a different set of players.
"We started to pass the ball and looked as though we could've scored another goal.
"Obviously they had to throw a few men forward and leave a few gaps but when you're a team that hasn't won for so long then we have to be very pleased.
"We're not getting carried away but we'll enjoy today."
Sam Muggleton's giant throw posed a couple of problems early on as Barnet won balls in the air but once Sadler and the eye-catching Leitch-Smith fired home, Shrewsbury looked full of confidence.
It was forward Leitch-Smith's first goal in 18 games.
But defensive problems have haunted Salop all season - particularly from balls into the box - and Hurst was pleased with how his side handled the Bees gigantic threat.
He added: "We knew the set pieces and aerial balls were a real danger. In fairness and honestly we didn't work on it too much in training, We highlighted but I think you can get bogged down and make it become too much of a fear factor.
"It's tough to implicate a throw like that anyway!
"We had a little bit of luck along the way in the second half, they hit the post and had one or two other moments.
"But no matter how big a team you are, you're always going to be under pressure from that Barnet side because unless it entered the other half of the pitch it was still coming in your box!
"I thought we defended well at Southend last week and then followed it up. Today they backed it up. It would've been easy to say we're getting somewhere and taken a backwards step but it was a good day for us."
