Shrewsbury caretaker claims his side deserved a point

Caretaker Shrewsbury Town boss Aaron Wilbraham says his side 'definitely' deserved at least a point after falling to a narrow defeat at the Stadium of Light.

Wilbraham is in charge whileSteveCotterillcontinues hisrecoveryfromCovid-19,and oversawamuchimprovedsecond-half showing.

Sunderlanddominatedthe opening half hour, and had opportunitiestoextendtheirlead further after Charlie Wyke's fine early header.

AmissedchancefromLeon Clarkerepresentedsomething of a turn in the momentum of the contest, and Shrewsbury were the better side for much of the second half.

"I think we definitely deserved something out of the game," said Wilbraham.

"Sunderlandstartedbright, we knew they would, and we matchedthemforeffortbutwe didn'tsettledownontheballas we usually would.

"For the last 15 minutes of the first half and the whole of the second we were pretty much camped in their half," he added.

Wehadafewdecentchances, if one of those goes in it's a totally different game. If you spoke to the Sunderland coaching staff - they said it themselves - they were lucky to get all three points. We deserved to get something."

The contest was Shrewsbury'sfirstleaguegameof2021 after the Covid outbreak at the club, and though they remain just three points above the relegation zone, Cotterill's arrival proved to be a catalyst over the festive period.

Shrewsbury had won four of their last five before Saturday, including wins against HullCity,LincolnCityandDoncaster Rovers.

"We will recover and we get the chance to start a new run of league games now," Wilbraham said.

"The unbeaten run comes to an end but we go again and start a new run. We take the positives from the second half into Tuesday.

"I told the lads no-one feeling sorry for themselves or heads down, because they can take a lot from that second half."

While conceding that his sidehadbeentoo'frantic'inthe second half, Sunderland head coachLeeJohnsonalsopraised their defensive resilience.

Thoughpoorinpossession, Sunderland's defence gave up few clear chances and goalkeeper Lee Burge largely went untested aside from a fine save to deny Harry Chapman in the first half.

"In the second half we had to dig in,” he said.