Steve Cotterill disappointed with 'sloppy' Shrewsbury
Steve Cotterill admitted he saw disappointing aspects in 'sloppy' Shrewsbury Town during their collapse against Doncaster he had not seen for some time.
Town sacrificed a 3-0 half-time lead against relegation-destined Rovers - an outcome that would have seen the visitors mathematically relegated - and Doncaster struck back in the 94th minute to claim a dramatic point that keeps their third tier status hanging by a thread.
Cotterill revealed he was 'agitated' at half-time despite a rare three-goal first-half haul for Salop. He thought elements of the first half could lead to trouble for the hosts after the break.
And right-back Kyle Knoyle's equaliser deep into stoppage time led to loud boos from the Shrewsbury stands as Town made it four games without a win in League One.
"We probably didn't deserve to be 3-0 up at half-time," Cotterill said after goals from attacking trio Daniel Udoh, Ryan Bowman and Shaun Whalley had his side up.
"There was probably a whiff of that second-half performance at the back end of the first half, which is probably why I was a bit agitated.
"There were things in our play that I haven't seen, so I wouldn't say it's a surprise.
"I wanted to keep a clean sheet today, it was one of the first things I put on the board (at half-time), because even if you don't add to your tally you've got three points.
"There was a sloppiness in us today at times, the final goal sums it up. We give a silly free-kick away we don't need to, he's not going anywhere.
"We defend it, the ball goes out wide in the 94th minute, we try to keep it in play - kick it into the crowd, the game's done.
"We've made mistakes for the goals today that have been unlike us. I'm disappointed with the performance as a whole, even the first half, being 3-0 up, while we scored good goals, there wasn't things in our play I felt we had over the weeks."
Town, defensively solid for a lot of the campaign, shipped three goals for the second game running - twice in four days - but while Town did well in defeat at Sunderland there was little joy after a second-half collapse against Rovers,
"I said to the boys just now 'do you realise why I was agitated at half-time?" Cotterill added. "Because I was'. I spoke calmly but I was agitated.
"it's just a huge disappointed because we let go of two points today and only took a point when we'd been three goals up. There's obviously a learning curve for the boys today."
