Boss ‘ultra disappointed’ but ‘proud’ after Shrewsbury Town’s Gillingham defeat

Shrewsbury Town boss Gavin Cowan was “proud” of his side’s performance but “ultra disappointed” by the result after a late defeat to Gillingham.

Cowan praised aspects of Town’s display but also highlighted costly mistakes as they slipped to 15th in League Two, while Gareth Ainsworth enjoyed a winning return to his former club.

“Obviously, ultra disappointed,” Cowan said. “There’s lots I could say for us to be better.

“Managing games and getting caught late on is something that probably is a reflection of the average age of the squad, the depth of the squad.

“As you can see today, we’re really scraping the barrel, in terms of when you look at their bench and you look at our bench and what they can bring on and what we can bring on - that’s something that’s quite consistent. We need to be better from that perspective.

“But when you look at it in terms of an overall game, you take out some of the big moments, I’m really proud of the players, about how they were brave and wanted to get on the ball.

“It’s a performance that Shrewsbury Town fans can be really proud of, but in terms of a result, it’s not what we want.”

The defeat was only Shrewsbury’s second in nine league games during an encouraging run that has lifted them up the standings.

But Town were immediately on the back foot after conceding inside three minutes. George Lloyd equalised from the penalty spot, only for the hosts to suffer a cruel late blow when Bradley Dack’s cross struck the crossbar and fell kindly for Andy Smith to score.

Cowan challenged his players to build on their performances and make the most of their progress this season.

“We’re challenging the players a little bit now to make a decision on what they want this season, because when you look at our overall performances across the season, I think we’ve been pretty excellent, to be honest,” Cowan continued.

“I think today’s another really good example of how far we’ve come. We’ve dominated a team in possession, we’re not just a team that is hard to beat, we dominated, completely dominated the game.

“But big moments. There’s a couple of opportunities where we have to score - notably four yards out in the middle of the goal. And then we don’t shut Dack down, who’s got great quality from crosses, it comes off the bar and we’re left sleeping.

“But when it went to 1-1, there was only one team. I think there was only one team when it was 1-0.

“We were really poor in terms of the start of the game, which is what we’d spoken about. We needed to be a bit more resolute.

“But just on the ascendancy of the whole game, when it went to 1-1, there was only one team that was going to win it. And that team didn’t.”