The gaffer on the loss at Shrewsbury..
Graham Westley says his players must learn from the 3-2 defeat at Shrewsbury as Boro put in a performance full of endeavor but ultimately, no points.
One of the main talking points was Shrewsbury’s equaliser to make it 1-1. GW and the team believe that a free-kick should have been given on Adam Marriott in the build up to the goal but despite that, the gaffer admits the way the team responded was poor.
“Our reaction to the disappointment of that decision cost us two (goals) because before we knew it we were 2-1 down as we were still moaning about the foul when the penalty was given.
“So some learning points in terms of our mental reaction to situations, we’ve got young players, learning players, players who have been at much lower levels playing in probably one of the biggest games they’ve ever played in and we’ve got to make sure as we go forward and play some very big games in the coming weeks that we learn from today and improve as we have done over the last six weeks.”
Midway through the first half Tom Pett had to be taken off after taking a knock and it took a while for the team to re-adjust.
“It upset our game plan for sure because Tom’s been such a good ball carrier for us. You only need to look at our points-per-game when he’s played, they’re very, very high. He’s a boy you can get the ball to and he’ll take on the game. Of course he created the first goal in a moment of typical Tom Pett creativity, it was a sickener to lose him and it definitely changed the way we had to play, we re-shuffled and probably didn’t get it right straight away."
After finding a way back into the game with Dean Wells’ equaliser, Boro headed into the final stages of the game with the three points still up for grabs.
“Going into the last 10 minutes Dean Parrett forces the goalkeeper into a great save from his free-kick. Dean Wells has an opportunity from another set piece where it almost seemed easier to head it in than head it over and we could be sitting here 3-2. Unfortunately it’s 3-2 the other way with an 88th minute goal.”
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