Cotterill joy at Shrews’ big effort against U’s
STEVE Cotterill was delighted with Shrewsbury’s performance at Cambridge – despite being unable to find a winner.
The game ended goalless, but Salop dominated much of the game, with Ryan Bowman hitting a post after Dimi Mitov had saved from Tom Flanagan in the fourth minute.
In the final ten minutes, Daniel
Udoh somehow headed over from close range – before Mitov saved brilliantly from Luke Leahy at the death.
“I don’t think we can get any closer without actually winning it,” Cotterill said.
“I said to them right at the beginning when I’ve come in here, ‘If you can’t win you don’t get beat, but trying to win is everything. Winning isn’t everything, but trying to win is.’
“We’ve tried to win that game today and we’ve come up a little bit short. But apart from putting the ball in the back of the net I don’t think there’s anything else we could have done.
“We’ve had 20-plus efforts at their goal and they haven’t had a shot on target, and that’s a tough place to come, here at Cambridge.
“I’m delighted with the players for their efforts and their enthusiasm to try and win the game.” For Bowman’s early chance, he turned Tom Bloxham’s whipped cross onto a near post.
Leahy then saw a header cleared away by Paul Digby, and he also fired wide from the corner of the box.
The closest Cambridge came was when Wes
Hoolahan’s ball was only partly cleared to Adam May, whose header from the edge of the box dropped wide.
Chances were scarce after the break before Shrewsbury had two glorious chances to grab the winner in the last ten minutes.
Bennett’s excellent cross from the right found Udoh unmarked from close range, but he could only head well over.
Leahy fired just wide from 25 yards, and in the dying seconds of normal time was denied by a superb one-handed Mitov save following Bennett’s corner.
Mark Bonner was happy to see his Cambridge side come away with a point, given Shrewsbury’s pressure.
He said: “It’s our 49th game of the season. The boys are absolutely shot to bits and cannot wait for a couple of days off.”