'Best half of the season' - Gavin Cowan lauds stunning Shrewsbury comeback victory

Proud Shrewsbury Town boss Gavin Cowan hailed the best 45 minutes of the season as his side fought back for a dramatic last-gasp win at Crawley.

Striker Josh Davison converted a 94th-minute winner after the visitors had trailed for a large part of the clash against the League Two basement boys in West Sussex.

Shrewsbury fell 1-0 down after four minutes amid a horrible start but Davison equalised with his first of a double just after the hour before strike partner George Lloyd looked to have snatched victory inside the final 10 minutes.

But Crawley’s Dylan Morgan hit back with a stunner for 2-2 - only for Davison to have the final say in a deserved consecutive victory that sees Salop climb to eighth in the fourth tier.

"I'm sure it was exciting for everyone else!” Cowan smiled.

"I'm obviously over the moon, I thought the second half the lads gave probably the best performance of the season.

"In terms of resolute defending, and more so in the transition, I thought our fast attacks were really good and we were just a threat - it should've been more with the offside goal we've seen back now, and again it's another goal for Lloydy that should be given. It baffles me as to why it's not given.

"But 3-2, away from home, strikers scoring, it doesn't get much better than that.”

Cowan was at a loss to explain his side’s poor start at Broadfield Stadium, where two saves from Will Brook stopped the rock-bottom hosts adding to Ade Adeyemo’s opener.

Home boss Colin Kazim-Richards, the former Türkiye international, is under mounting pressure with the Red Devils and Davison’s late intervention led to heavy boos and chants of “sacked in the morning” as the hosts slipped six adrift of safety.

For Shrewsbury the story is a different one with supporters daring to look up to the play-off places, which Cowan’s men now trail on goal difference alone.

Lloyd made it two goals in two games and four for the season - all coming in the last seven games - with a well-taken rebound after having one Cowan felt was incorrectly ruled out for offside.

Davison is also up to four for the campaign as he doubled his tally for the season, his first a fine angled finish after Lloyd’s fine headed flick-on, with more signs of a flourishing partnership.

"The goals are the icing on the cake - and they're the bit we've been asking them for,” Cowan added. "I'm really pleased and proud of them. When you look at them in open play they were the two - but in the first 20 minutes we didn't get started.

"We've been together over 36 hours preparing for this, a long old day-and-a-half, we prepared meticulously, I'm really appreciative of the chairman and CEO facilitating brilliant preparation for us - (but) for us to start like that, I didn't see it coming.

"We managed to get a foothold after a really poor 20 minutes. We managed to react, we had some really choice words at half-time about how we could react.

"We're trying to get to the next level, the phrase I was using was almost 'burning the boats' trying to get to the next level and when we put a second-half performance - what a reaction - it just shows the togetherness in the group, staff, how connected we are with the fans.

“There's something bubbling here but it will take a lot of action. That's a good step forward."