Delighted Paul Hurst has his say after huge away win
Paul Hurst said his Shrewsbury Town side thoroughly deserved their League One victory at Sixfields Stadium over Northampton.
It was Hurst’s first game in charge of the club since he returned as head coach on Wednesday, and they got a brilliant victory over the in-form Cobblers, who beat Charlton in midweek.
Two second-half goals were enough to secure the points for Shrewsbury as Dan Udoh scored for the first time since November before skipper Chey Dunkley added a second with more than 10 minutes to go from a corner.
Town had been in rotten form before the trip to Northampton, losing seven out of their last eight games across all competitions and only scoring four goals away from home all season.
But they put that to bed on a cold afternoon with a brilliant performance where they could have won by a much more flattering margin.
“I think it was a very well-deserved three points,” Hurst said on his first game back in charge if Shrewsbury.
“It is not like we were lucky or we were hitting them on the break or anything like that. We were talking about the players who impressed, but I thought they all did well, genuinely, I think they all did, and they all had moments in the game.
A lot of what we spoke about and tried to implement was on show. We saw bits in terms of what Northampton offered, we nullified a lot of that, and hopefully the players can take confidence from it.
“I just said in there I do not want to rain on anyone’s parade, but it was one game, I am not going to get carried away, but back to the initial question.
“Getting up this morning and thinking about the game, there was a bit of apprehension, I have got to be truthful, and I was still a bit concerned at half-time in regards to it looked like the players had put so much into it and I am not sure where they are fitness wise with some at least.
“But they seemed to find a little bit more energy when they needed it, and a lot of that second half I felt I was looking to my right.
“We had a really good spell where it was attack after attack, but it took us a little while to get in front.
“Maybe when you have dominated the game or had quite a lot of it certainly and did not get in front, you start to wonder if you are going to get hit with a sucker punch.
“Thankfully we didn’t, and we had to soak up a little bit of pressure, but I think Marko has only really had one save to make that I can remember at least so I am really really pleased.”
