Smith’s a late hero VITAL STATS

JOHN SHERIDAN was full of praise for the character of his players after they grabbed a late point at Shrewsbury.

The Robins fought back from 2-0 and 3-1 down as Matty Smith’s 93rd-minute equaliser secured a draw as Sheridan was able to avoid defeat in his first game in charge since taking over from Richie Wellens.

Shrewsbury scored through Aaron Pierre, Matt Millar and Dave Edwards, but the visitors replied through Joel Grant, Hallam Hope and Smith.

Sheridan said: “The players showed great character. I really liked the response of the players to going 2-0 down. We got a foothold in the game and dominated the second half.

“I’m chuffed to bits we’ve managed to get something out of the game, it was welldeserved. But our downfall was that we conceded two early goals. We’ve conceded too many cheap goals. It was a sloppy first goal and the second goal was similar, people didn’t do their jobs properly.

“We’ve scored three goals away from home and created chances, but we don’t want to be chasing games. It’s important we keep clean sheets.”

Frustrated Shrews manager Sam Ricketts has not seen his side win in the league in their last six outings, with a point not enough to see them haul them out of the relegation zone.

“I’m bitterly disappointed not to come away with three points,” admitted Ricketts, whose side have also won just one of their last 11 league matches.

“You can argue the throw-in which led to their last goal was ours, but it’s little things hurting us at the moment. We were trying to snatch the game.

“We were eager to see the game out, but we sunk in and got punished for it. We should have gone on to get the fourth or fifth goal to kill off the game.

“Some of the goals we’ve conceded are unlucky, but some of them are not good enough defending. We need to find the confidence to see a game out.”