Gavin Cowan admits Shrewsbury Town’s defeat to Cheltenham Town was ‘right result’
Gavin Cowan conceded Shrewsbury Town’s defeat to Cheltenham Town was justified - but was frustrated with missed chances and “poor” officiating.
Salop conceded two second-half goals to suffer back-to-back defeats at the Meadow. It was just a third defeat in Cowan’s opening 10 matches in charge.
Shrewsbury also failed to score for the first time since their defeat at Colchester United, and Cowan rued missed opportunities, including Tommy McDermott’s early miss.
He said: “Obviously really disappointed with the result. Probably for the first time in a long time as well, I'd say that our performance probably wasn't where we wanted it to be.
“For a number of reasons, I think collectively we know we need to be better at our fundamentals, which was disappointing because it's been big on the messages really.
“Players know they need to be accountable for what essentially are our core values of how we approach games and we didn't quite do that.
“However, first-half we did have the better chances. Tommy obviously goes through and has a one-on-one that any other day you'd hope he'd win and perhaps if he scores that, it's probably a different day.
“But we felt like we needed to get an early goal. They're very cute at managing the momentum of the game and you need strong officials and we didn't have that today.
“We didn't have strong officials. I'm loath to criticise officials, but I thought that was really poor.
“I think the result was absolutely right, it's how it should have been. I can't complain about the result.
“But if you've got strong officials who are going to not allow the opposition to dictate the momentum of the game, I think we probably can get a bit more of a stronghold in it.”
It was a tightly contested first period with the sides level at the break. McDermott squandered a golden chance inside the opening minutes, firing off target with only goalkeeper Joe Day to beat.
Jordan Thomas gave the Robins the lead with a well-taken finish in the 63rd minute before Sam Sherring added a second from a corner eight minutes later.
Salop were unable to claw their way back into the contest, creating few chances and leaving Day with little to do in goal.
“We know that our first and second contacts weren't there,” Cowan added. “We know that our, we call it, setting the tone wasn't there.
“If we could have scored one of those three early chances, it would have been a different game because they probably would have had to come out and chase us a little bit more.
“But going into half-time, you feel like you probably can be better. We probably knew that we had a little bit more, but we'd had the better chances.”
“Up until their goal, really, it just felt like a real stalemate. It felt like a bit of a nothing game. That always makes me nervous because you don't want to get complacent.
“We lose the first contact and then we don't close him down. It's unforgiving, really, that he gets a shot from that area at a pitch.
“When they scored then, we sort of ran out of steam.”
Shrewsbury’s advantage over the relegation zone was cut to 12 points with the defeat, as former boss Steve Cotterill returned to the Meadow for the first time since leaving and secured a double over Salop.
