Salford boss Graham Alexander bemoans penalty decision in FA Cup defeat

Posted Thursday, November 22, 2018 by PA

Graham Alexander was left to bemoan a penalty decision and a poor hour of football from Salford as they went down 3-1 to Shrewsbury in their FA Cup first-round replay.

The National League side drew 1-1 in the first meeting between the sides, but two goals from Fejiri Okenabirhie and a great individual effort from Greg Docherty were enough for the Shrews to set up a tie with Scunthorpe.

However, with the score at 2-1 following Adam Rooney’s header, Salford might have had a penalty when Docherty appeared to block Tom Walker in the box without touching the ball.

Alexander said: “I thought we should have had a penalty on Tom Walker at 2-1. It wasn’t given, and the third goal we’ve committed a lot of bodies forward and looking to get that equaliser and it just proved beyond our reach.

“I think the first hour for us was really disappointing.

“I don’t think we played anything like what we can and Shrewsbury fully deserved their lead. We were just about to make the change with a couple a subs to change what we did when they got the second, which was unfortunate.”

It was a second straight win for Shrewsbury caretaker manager Danny Coyne, who took temporary charge after the sacking of John Askey a week ago.

Coyne praised the effort of his players as they avoided a shock.

He said: “They gave everything again as you could see at the end, some of them left their legs out there.

“(Salford) got their goal and it got a little bit hairy in there at times. All in all, I’m made up that we’ve got through to the next round with a home tie.”