Steve Cotterill 'proud' of battling Shrewsbury players after Carabao Cup exit
Steve Cotterill said he was proud of the performance of his players after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Championship side Burnley.
Salop were resolute in the first period, and they restricted the Clarets to very few clear-cut opportunities - and had a good chance to open the scoring themselves through Matthew Pennington.
But Burnley scored early in the second half when Samuel Bastien converted from close range.
Despite their Lancashire opponents having more quality on the pitch, they did not create too many chances to score, and Shrewsbury almost snatched an equaliser at the end when Chey Dunkley headed in, but it was adjudged to be offside.
And the boss said he was pleased with the efforts his side put in.
"I'm really proud of the players," the boss said on the game.
"I thought they were fantastic tonight, absolutely fantastic, I thought they were great.
"We didn't deserve to lose the game I don't feel.
"We had more shots on target and had more efforts.
"We didn't have the possession but that is going to happen anyway.
"We made a mistake tonight when they got an overload for the goal. "They got three against two and we didn't stop the cross.
"All in all, I am only disappointed with the result because I don't think we deserved that."
And the Salop boss said that when you play sides like Burnley you have to adapt.
"You can't push all game against them," he continued.
"You can't do what we did in the second half we'll get picked off and get beat 3-0.
"We couldn't do that.
"So tactically the game has to be different for us than it can be for them.
"Also, you are asking lads to go again and do another shift against a good team.
"We made some changes tonight, but as it goes on they are going to get more and more tired.
"I was really pleased with them tonight."
