Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill happy with a point at AFC Wimbledon

Posted Sunday, January 30, 2022 by PA

Shrewsbury manager Steve Cotterill was content with a point as his side came back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with AFC Wimbledon at Plough Lane.

The Dons led 1-0 at half-time after Ayoub Assal’s header 13 minutes into the game, before Daniel Udoh levelled the scores just before the hour mark.

Both sides came out firing in the last 30 minutes, but ultimately neither side could find the back of the net and had to settle for a draw.

And after a week of travelling for Shrewsbury, with another away trip to Gillingham four days ago, Cotterill was pleased with the performance of his players.

He said: “That’s the third game in a week, and we’ve had an incredible amount of travelling this week, we haven’t picked up a win with the two draws, but we’ve played really well.

“I thought we started the game brilliantly, and probably should’ve scored a goal in the first 15 minutes, but then they score and that sticks us on the back foot a little bit.

“There wasn’t a lot wrong with us at half-time to be honest, we were OK, we just didn’t quite have that finishing touch in the final third, but we just tweaked one thing in midfield at half-time and it worked really well for the goal.

“Today, certainly with the second half, maybe there could have been a 2-1 victory in it for us, but at the end of the day, you’ll always take a point away from home in a difficult game.”

Dons manager Mark Robinson insisted that the mood in his squad is still good after another game without a win, as their search for a first victory in 2022 continues.

He said: “The players are obviously frustrated because they want to win games, there were a couple of clear-cut chances and we’ve come away with a point again.

“But the mood’s always good, because we know what we’re doing and we know what we’re building.

“I didn’t think we started great to be honest, everyone seems to think we were really good in the first half.

“We scored a really good goal, and I thought we were better, and looked comfortable.

“But I think we looked comfortable because we were picking up a lot of second balls and dealing with what they do really well, and then at the start of the second half they started landing on more second balls and got momentum from that.

“There was great fluidity with most of our play and we never really got that going again in the second half.”