Paul Hurst hails Shrewsbury's little bit of French 'magic'
Last-gasp hero Arthur Gnahoua answered Paul Hurst's call for a 'moment of magic' as he emerged from the bench to lash in an added time winner at Doncaster.
The Frenchman netted his first ever Football League goal in front of the Rovers end to stun The Keepmoat Stadium as the league leaders looked destined to be held to a 1-1 draw.
Joe Riley had instantly cancelled out Tommy Rowe's first-half strike as Shrewsbury went in search of extending their unbeaten league record into double figures.
But up stepped Gnahoua, a free transfer from Kidderminster Harriers this summer, to find the corner from the edge of the box to send 300 travelling Shrewsbury fans into ecstasy.
Hurst said: "The last message from myself (to him) was 'a little bit of magic, go and win us the game'.
"The lads said they knew he was going to score. I wasn't quite as confident, I've seen him get into those positions quite a few times in the little appearances he's made and he couldn't finish it.
"In training, he's one of the best I've seen in that situation. He seems to pass it into the net. But he put his laces through it a bit more.
"I have to say credit to my assistant Doigy who said 'what about Arthur?' - it took a couple of minutes for me to decide it was the right things for me to do.
"We gave him the opportunity and in that short space of time he couldn't have done much more."
Wild scenes immediately followed the winner, with all of nine minutes of added time played out at the end. The win, Town's eight from 10 matches in the league, was again by the odd goal.
Hurst made four changes for the clash as he rested a number of the players that held Blackburn to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Omar Beckles made his full League One debut, while in came Louis Dodds, Carlton Morris and Riley.
"I'd made my mind up there would be changes but how many and who took a little time." the boss added.
"Sunday I was scribbling things down and came up with that team and I liked the look of it.
"There's an element of risk. Had we got beat I'm sure some people would say 'why did we change it?'
"We needed a few lads out there that were a little bit fresher. It helped us."
