"Totally undeserved" - Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill dejected after last gasp Bolton defeat

Town dropped to 18th in League One, just three points above the drop zone, as Dion Charles lashed in a thumping last-minute winner in front of a rampant Whites end at Montgomery Waters Meadow.

Cotterill's hosts had been the better side for large parts, albeit Bolton's impressive depth of quality came on strong late on, but Shrewsbury were undoubtedly the more productive side and had more than double the visitors' effort on goal.

The 1-0 defeat was a first in six league games for Town - who again named the same starting XI for the sixth game running - but a run of four straight league clean sheets, and more than 500 minutes without conceding, came to an end as the league table now shows Cotterill's men just three points clear of safety. A vastly improved run had, not so long ago, seen Shrews climb to 14th and seemingly away from the mire.

A visibly deflated Cotterill said: "It is when you are the better team, it's always tough to take when you are the better team.

"Good, (we were) very good today. We created enough opportunities to win probably two games, we just didn't put one away.

"In the end they end up scoring from one of their shots, we probably had - without looking at stats - we probably had double their efforts on goal.

"We were just the better team, we've got to take one of those chances and if we do it becomes a different game, I think we end up winning by more than one, but we needed one of those chances to go in and unfortunately for us it didn't go in."

Daniel Udoh forced Bolton's James Trafford into a low second-half save and Ryan Bowman headed over having also drawn a first-half stop.

Town peppered the visitors' penalty area with a number of other deliveries that led to openings that just got away, while Josh Vela, Elliott Bennett and George Nurse all had a go from distance.

The harsh reverse is Shrewsbury's first home defeat in nine games in all competitions - eight in the league - dating back to the 2-1 defeat to Wycombe at the end of September.

"It's always difficult to take encouragement from defeat," Cotterill added. "I don't take defeat too well, it's always a difficult one to come out to you and then put on a face I don't want to put on because I feel down for the players, for the amount of effort they put in.

"Because no matter what, we've put enough effort into that game to win it. On another day I suppose we'll be the ones to score late in a game, you can't always take your chances, and today we haven't but we've certainly created enough.

"It was a scuffed cross that ended up getting into him (Charles), we'd have been better with him crossing it properly, but it was a scuffed cross, but take nothing away from the finish, it was fantastic, but totally undeserved from our boys."

Town face a big week ahead, with a long haul to new basement boys Gillingham on Tuesday followed by next Saturday's clash at AFC Wimbledon, who are one place and two points below Town, in 19th.

Cotterill introduced new loan signing Saikou Janneh for a home debut with 12 minutes left and his other switch was to introduce Tom Bloxham in the 90th minute after Charles' wonderstrike.

Shrews' newest recruit, loan midfielder Tyrese Fornah, remained an unused substitute.

The Salop chief felt a handful of his players were just a touch off their sharpest and, had they been up to maximum speed, his side would've taken the three points.

Cotterill said: "It's hard, I didn't think Dan (Udoh) was at his sharpest today. If he was at his sharpest maybe one of those chances might've gone in.

"We probably had three or four players who, had they been at their sharpest - they didn't have bad games at all - but had they been at their sharpest, those players would've been our difference-makers.

"But we can't always rely on them to be our assisters, providers, match-winners, everybody has to take responsibility."