Paul Hurst slams 'rubbish' Shrewsbury
Boss Paul Hurst slammed his Shrewsbury Town side after a ‘rubbish’ performance and questioned their commitment on the night.
Ten-man Town slipped to second in their Checkatrade Trophy group after Amadou Bakayoko’s 90th minute header saw the Saddlers leapfrog Shrewsbury.
Ben Godfrey’s 75th minute red card swung the game in the away team's favour, but Hurst was angry with his players' attitude.
“It was rubbish,” he said. “You try to find things to motivate players but a high number of them looked like they didn’t want to be out there.
“For some it was an opportunity to impress, I don’t think any of them have took that opportunity re which I find ridiculous.
“I said to the players that when it comes to the Rotherham game, there’ll be some moaning that they're not in the team and I’ll just get this DVD out and show them that.
“When a team of mine sets out on the pitch I expect them to compete. Pre-season we played Villa, Burton and Cardiff, ok higher opposition but pre season so called friendly. This is a competitive game and we didn’t compete.”
Young defender Christos Shelis shanked a cross leading to Bakayoko’s winner. Hurst added: "I feel for Christos, he’s in tears in there and it’s a long time since I’ve seen a player in tears but a lot of what happened prior to that is the reason why we didn’t get a result.”
There was little action to talk about in a dull first half where the manager opted to try a 3-5-2 system. Shrewsbury looked more threatening when Shaun Whalley was introduced, who was one of the very few players who Hurst has something positive to say about.
The boss added: “We tried a different system and that clearly wasn’t working, in fairness to the players we hadn’t really worked on it, it was just instructions on the evening but that doesn’t stop you winning a header, winning a tackle, running hard and pressing the opposition.”
Hurst disagreed with the red card decision that went against Godfrey in the second half, another one of the few players who avoided criticism from his boss.
He added: “The lad commits to a slide, well ahead of when he should and therefore gets himself hurt.
“Ben clearly wins the ball, the lead foot that gets the ball doesn’t make contact with him, its just another case of you not being able to make a strong tackle in football which annoys the hell out of me.”
