Opposition view: Taylor admits Shrewsbury rode their luck in win over Cobblers

Shrewsbury Town head coach Matt Taylor confessed that his team had luck on their side en route to a pressure relieving 1-0 victory over Northampton on Saturday.

Shrews had lost four of their last five games and the pressure was mounting on Taylor, but his side grabbed a much-needed victory thanks to Dan Udoh’s stoppage-time goal, which came shortly after Sam Hoskins had missed a penalty.

"I’m really pleased,” said Taylor. “Not necessarily for myself but for all of the staff and the players because I know how hard everyone works.

"We’ve played better but we’ve not had any luck and what we had today was some luck. The ball fell to Dan and it’s a great finish for us. They’ll be really disappointed but hopefully that gives the players some confidence.

"I think there’s huge growth in this team but we’ve suffered a lot in the last four or five weeks. You go away from a game and you feel disappointed but now the players need to enjoy that feeling today.

"I thought the boys worked their socks off defensively. We made some really important blocks and I’m pleased we’ve got a result and we’ve got three points but I still feel we need to be more clinical. There were a few times today when we were flagged offside for one-on-ones but we weren’t offside.”

Asked what he was thinking as Hoskins stepped up to take his penalty, Taylor added: “Probably the same as everyone else. It’s a definite penalty so we can’t get away from that and it comes from us giving the ball away and turning it over. We knew where their threats were and we highlighted it to them.

"I played with Sam and I know he’s a very, very good striker of the ball. Marco (Marosi) went the right way but it’s hit the crossbar and you need a bit of lucky in football sometimes and we haven’t had much of that since I’ve been here.

"You make your own luck and today’s result is justification for all the hard work everyone has put in over the last three months.”