Steve Cotterill: Tiredness cost Shrewsbury Town in Doncaster defeat

Town were made to pay for missing chance after chance in the second half as home defender Joseph Olowu climbed to nod in to steal all three points 11 minutes from time as Shrews away league woes go on.

Luke Leahy, Matt Pennington and Daniel Udoh missed glorious chances in each half, but mostly either side of the hour when it was one-way traffic in favour of the visitors. Cotterill thought his side did enough to win by four goals.

But the managerless hosts ended a run of five defeats with a first win in seven with the crucial win to move off bottom as Town dropped to 20th. Cotterill suggested that a week of three away fixtures had caught up with his threadbare side.

Top scorer Ryan Bowman was the latest to join the absentee list. Rekeil Pyke was handed a start despite being at fault along with Sam Cosgrove for Wigan's late winner on Wednesday and Cosgrove did not make it from the bench with only Khanya Leshabela - who was joined by academy players in reserve - introduced late on.

"(it was) no more than average really, no more than average," Cotterill admitted.

"We looked tired today, we had no spring in our step, did OK at times in the game.

"As the game goes on we make a mistake before the corner and then you're thinking we need to clear it.

"We've had chances today where if we take it we win the game (by) four.

"But we weren't sharp today, we looked like it's been a long week and we just couldn't get to grips with having a bit more speed."

Town are now 11 away league games without a win this season, having drawn just twice in that period.

Young Rovers goalkeeper Louis Jones was forced into a couple of decent saves. Asked about a lack of killer touch in the final third, the boss added: "We had enough (chances) in the first half as well. A few balls in, we decided to set players in the box rather than taking a touch and striking through the ball.

"I don't know why we've done that, we did that a couple of times when we didn't need to.

"I think that while we've made their keeper make a couple of saves, we've had a couple of opportunities where we could've given him no choice on making a save."

Cotterill added of Doncaster's winner from a corner: "You've got to remember the team is getting smaller and smaller by the week in terms of size, we've done very well with our (defensive) zones for a long time and this is the first time we've had a hiccup in it.

"If we get a first contact on that the game ends up 0-0 and it will peter out. That was decisive today and from our set-plays we weren't sharp enough, there wasn't too much wrong with our delivery from set-plays, but we weren't sharp enough to take those opportunities."

When asked if the defeat could be viewed as a missed opportunity for his side to put more daylight between themselves and strugglers below them, Cotterill said: "We would never be that arrogant."

He added: "I was hoping a goal would come rather than seeing it. We were lacklustre, we were very tired. The pitch isn't bad but we've played on a couple of rain-sodden pitches.

"We've had three long journeys on the bus and that's how it came out in our play. We just looked tired and sometimes you're trying to whip a performance out of them."

The manager gave nothing away regarding the extent of seven-goal striker Bowman's calf injury or any other fitness absentees, including Ethan Ebanks-Landell and Aaron Pierre.