Craig Short pleased with Oxford’s second-half show against Shrewsbury
Posted Wednesday, October 20, 2021 by PA
Assistant head coach Craig Short believed Oxford responded well to Saturday’s home defeat against Plymouth, after the 2-0 defeat of Shrewsbury at the Kassam Stadium.
Short took charge of the team in the absence of boss Karl Robinson, who watched the game at home while awaiting the results of a Covid-19 PCR test after feeling unwell.
Goals from Mark Sykes less than a minute into the second half and Cameron Brannagan three minutes from time brought the hosts three Sky Bet League One points.
Short said: “In the first 45 minutes I thought we were a bit slow and nervous.
“I said to the lads we need to get the performance levels back to the way they were last Saturday. And we responded by moving the ball quicker, it was much better.”
After a first clean sheet in seven matches, Short admitted: “It was a case of everyone putting a shift in, including those who came off the bench, to help get us that clean sheet.
“Yes, the circumstances were a bit unusual, but it was a pleasure for me to be given the opportunity to take the team.
“Karl got his message across to us – the Zoom we had intended using didn’t work so he was just on a phone. I think he is calmer when he’s on the phone than when he’s in the dressing room.
“All credit to Mark Sykes and Cameron Brannagan, we’ve said we need more goals from midfield.
“Sykes admitted his one was actually a cross, but he deserved it. Cameron prefers playing in that number eight, more attacking, role and he had a few chances.
“I said to the players at half-time that I just wanted them to give me an extra 20 per cent in the second half because I thought we were just too slow. And they responded well.”
Shrewsbury manager Steve Cotterill said: “On the back of our win last Saturday we were really hoping to build on that and make it back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
“We did well enough in the first half but then we kicked ourselves in the teeth.
“If you start as we did at the start of the second half it leaves you with a mountain to climb.
“The defence that was so good on Saturday wasn’t so good tonight.
“But if I’m honest I thought we’d contained Oxford well, we looked organised and they were running out of ideas.
“They have been a difficult team to play against for us in the last three years but we had enough chances tonight.
“In fact we had better chances than the chances Oxford had that ended up in the back of our net. So it’s very disappointing for us.”
Shrewsbury are fourth from bottom and have played more games than most of the clubs around them.
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