Steve Lovell full of praise for Mark Byrne after Gillingham draw at Shrewsbury
Posted Wednesday, February 21, 2018 by PA
Gillingham manager Steve Lovell was pleased to see Mark Byrne on the scoresheet after the midfielder grabbed a late equaliser to pick up a useful point following a 1-1 draw at second-placed Shrewsbury.
The hosts looked on course to replace Blackburn Rovers at the top of League One thanks to Abu Ogogo’s first-half strike.
But the visitors were rewarded for an improved second-half performance when Byrne fired an 82nd-minute leveller from a tight angle to extend their impressive run of just one loss in their last 13 league games.
Lovell said: “He’s (Byrne) a good player. You’ve got to play him in a position where it suits him which we do. We give him opportunities to go forward when it’s on, but mainly he’s a breaker upper of play.
“But he’s better than that. He’s good on the ball, he’s good in the air, he’s fit and he gives everything. He’s a great man to have in your team, he’s one of the first you put down every week.
“Tonight it typified a Mark Byrne performance where he just controlled anything.”
Lovell’s encouragement also spread among his team as the Gills improved markedly during the second period.
“In the first half they started well, but it’s not about them, it’s about us,” he added. “We’ve got to start in the way that we started the second half.
“They’re second, but in the second half we outplayed them for football I thought. We kept hold of the ball and created things.
“In the context of everything, it’s another point against a very good side, but at the end of the day if we had started better we might have come away with three.”
Shrewsbury have now taken just two points from their last four home games and manager Paul Hurst was frustrated they were unable to hold onto their lead.
He said: “We’re just giving teams a helping hand at the minute, there’s no doubt about that, and if you do that you’re going to find it difficult to win games of football.
“That’s the biggest difference between now and the start of the season.”
Ogogo’s goal, which came in the 14th minute when he converted Shaun Whalley’s cross, was his first for Shrewsbury since April 2016.
The captain so nearly grabbed a late winner when his powerful volley was cleared off the line by Byrne.
Hurst said: “The lads were joking, saying he’s sort of made a tackle and scored! No, it’s a great finish and then he had a shot at the end.
“He couldn’t have hit it any better, and unfortunately it’s gone to the side where they’ve got a man on the post and that’s credit to them.
“It was an absolutely fantastic strike and I just wish it could have been slightly to the side and either gone in or hit the lad and gone in.
“I thought he was the standout performer tonight again.”
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