Gary Peters on defeat at the Bescot!

Last updated : 26 December 2006 By Andy Van Hagen
After watching his side lose to ten man Walsall, Shrewsbury manager Gary Peters had the following to tell his sides official website
www.shrewsburytown.co.uk:

"We did gain an advantage when they had a man sent off and we did utilize that advantage by having the ball for long, long periods. We were passing the ball well and I think Walsall were happy to let us do that until we got to the last third, that's where the real quality had to step in and we had to break them down but we couldn't do that.

We had the majority of the game but didn't pass the ball in the areas that mattered and therefore we didn't create as many chances as we should have done.

Their keeper had saves to make and in the last minute he had a double, treble save to make and I don't know how the ball didn't cross their line, there were so many people trying to get onto the ball but they somehow managed to keep it out. Clayton Ince does come for crosses and he takes them well, he did brilliantly for them today and was their best player, the ball was in their box but he stopped things by taking, if he's stayed on his line or punched it then chances would have come.

We had a lot to think about in the changing rooms afterwards and we were in there for 45-minutes, not in a shouting and screaming way but discussing about the things in the game and why they didn't work.

The Walsall goal came from a double handball, Ben Davies took a free-kick and their fella saved in with his hands, the linesman on that side saw but didn't flag, the ref said he didn't see it as it was behind him but the video will prove it was a handball. We were taking a free-kick so had a lot of people in their box and we're in a fragile position if the move broke down, that's exactly what happened the fella handballed it, it went out to them and we were getting back when the cross hit the farpost and went in.

We've got to remain calm as only one side have gone to Walsall and won. They are a strong side but we had the chance to win that game today and should have won the game, we now have to ask ourselves a lot of questions on why we didn't.

We tried to thread too many balls through their defence like say Arsenal would try to do, we needed to get the ball wide more and get crosses in but we weren't doing that and with them playing two solid banks of four we couldn't get through them.

Richard Hope got battered by their lad in the first half twice, his shins are all scared and he had a facial injury so came off, but it seemed pointless to leave three centre-backs on marking just one of their centre-forwards. There was always going to be a change at half-time but Hopey was the correct one because he'd been battered and he hadn't done brilliantly in the first half."