Bernard McNally: Shrewsbury now able to concentrate on league after cup heroics

To not quite make the lottery of a penalty shootout will be a big disappointment to the players and Paul Hurst, but they really can hold their heads high.

What a performance it was over the two ties to take West Ham to more than 200 minutes before the Premier League team could break through. The night at the London Stadium, in front of 3,000 proud Shrewsbury fans, adds another chapter to the heroic tale Town have been writing this season.

West Ham came on strong towards the death after they had sent on Marko Arnautovic and Mark Noble to join Manuel Lanzini and Co – some of David Moyes’ best players to break down Town.

It was then that they had some openings and threatened Dean Henderson’s goal. It could have been a high-scoring game if both sides had taken their chances.

Town did themselves no harm. Maybe the first tie was a missed opportunity, Paul has said that, but at least Town did not go there and take a 4-0 drubbing.

Joe Hart made a fine save to deny Stefan Payne. He did what Joe has done over all these years, come out and make himself big, almost Schmeichel-esque.

You have Ben Godfrey and James Bolton’s goalline clearances in extra time – for me those moments typifies how these players want to work for each other, their mentality. People putting their bodies on the line.

There’s an old adage, and I’m sure Paul will be saying it, they have to concentrate on the league now.

It was a great performance away from home, they can take real positives from it and it can further boost their confidence if it took a knock after losing at Blackburn last weekend.

Saturday’s home fixture against the improving Doncaster is a shot for Town to bounce back, and we’ve seen this season that Paul is able to do that with these players.

You can tell the players have ownership of what is going on. Their mindset and mentality says ‘we’ve got to go and put it right now’.

It will be an exciting game at Montgomery Waters Meadow. Hopefully they can get the points and a couple of goals.

The league becomes interesting at this stage, I remember my old manager Graham Turner saying a couple of times that once a team had played the first round of league games, sides know each other and they know what to expect.

League One sides will want to face Shrewsbury and want to get one over Town because of how the season has gone. This second half of the season becomes difficult and everyone needs to be tuned in for the cause.