'Best result for Shrews under the circumstances’ - admits Cotterill

Steve Cotterill says his side's 1-1 draw with Sunderland was the best result of his tenure at Shrewsbury Town.

His side had looked to be heading for defeat when David Davis was sent off just moments before half time, already trailing 1-0 to Alex Pritchard's fine strike.

Their woes were compounded by the fact that they played with ten men for a significant period against Cheltenham Town just days previous, and that they had subsequently lost senior defenders Aaron Pierre and Ethan Ebanks-Landell to injury.

Cotterill said his side should have taken the lead before Pritchard's strike, with Ryan Bowman missing a major chance from close range.

The Shrewsbury Town boss said his side showed the 'mental toughness' required to get something out of the game.

"The circumstances were difficult enough before the game having lost three defenders from Saturday," Cotterill said.

"It got even more difficult with 10 men. This was the second game with us playing with 10 men.

"It looked like we had learnt from Saturday tonight in there.

"We don't want to get used to that but I thought the lads were brilliant tonight," he added.

"This is the best result, without it being a win, we've had since I've been at the club because of the circumstances surrounding the game.

"There were three great chances early on that we could have scored from and that would have put us in charge of the game then.

"We had another chance just after the sending off and that could have been four.

"Their goal and the sending off rocked us but not for long, which was the most pleasing thing for me.

"We showed mental toughness to not let that get to us.

"You have to stay in games, you have to be tough and you have to do the horrible things.

"It's not all about having possession but saying that we did that very well.

"I haven't seen the red card yet so I don't know if it was or not. I thought tonight we were great even with 10 men."

The draw left Shrewsbury one place, and two points, above the League One relegation zone.