Opposition view: Appleton felt 'dominant' Shrewsbury should have scored 'five or six' against Cobblers
Shrewsbury manager Michael Appleton claimed it ‘wouldn’t have been unfair’ had his side ‘scored five or six’ after their 2-1 defeat to Northampton in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday.
Shrews exited the competition after going down to goals from Kamarai Swyer and Conor McCarthy, but they did have chances at Sixfields with Lee Burge producing sharp saves from John Marquis and Luca Hoole at 0-0, while Anthony Scully curled wide shortly before Northampton’s winner.
"I thought we were the dominant team on the night, certainly in terms of chances,” said Appleton. “We created some big, big chances but if you don’t take those chances, you can get punished and to lose the way we did was disappointing.
"It looked like the ball was going to drop around the 18-yard box but the wind has taken it another five or six yards and they’ve got on the end of it. There was probably a bit of confusion over whether the goalkeeper should come for the ball.
"But to be fair we shouldn’t even be discussing that as the winning goal. The reality is that I don’t think it would have been unfair if we had scored five or six tonight. From a performance point of view, it gives me a lot of confidence going into the weekend.
"Even in the first half, they scored a fantastic goal but we had an opportunity where the ball has just hit the goalkeeper in the face from two yards out. If that goes in, they have to flood more bodies forward and it creates opportunities for us.
"I was really happy with the performance but we just didn’t have the quality in those big moments when we needed it.”