Steve Cotterill 'disappointed' as Shrewsbury's unbeaten run ends

It was the first time Salop had lost on the road since their defeat to Cambridge United on Boxing Day, and it was a feisty affair in Lancashire.

Aaron Pressley gave the hosts the lead in the 13th minute when he converted Rosaire Longelo's cross after they had switched the play.

Stanley almost doubled their lead when Shaun Whalley, a former Salop favourite, hit the post with a looping header, in otherwise what was a fairly uneventful first half.

Town reacted well after the break, and Rekeil Pyke went close to levelling the scores on a couple of occasions, first, he was denied by the crossbar and then by Lukas Jensen.

Matthew Pennington, who came back in the side after a brief absence with a head injury, went close with a couple of headers but Shrews ended up on the wrong side of the result.

"I thought the game was nothing in the first half," the Town manager said when he was asked for his thoughts on the game.

"They kept switching the play, they got it out to their right wing-back who's tricky, we knew that. That's where the goal came from and we're disappointed.

"But other than that I don't remember anything else.

"It's just disappointing. Disappointing all-round today."

And Cotterill was frustrated with the way his side went behind early on.

"We gave a sloppy goal away at the start of the game," he continued.

"If we'd just mopped that up they didn't look like scoring and in the second half they probably didn't get out of their half.

Town made substitutions at the break introducing Pyke and Tom Bayliss.

And in the second period, they had more than enough opportunities to get something from the game – but they did not show the quality they have in recent weeks in front of goal.

They also switched to a back four at half-time with the boss hoping that would give his side more energy.

He said: "We changed shape and went to a 4-4-2 in the second half and then later on we ended up going to 4-3-3.

"It was to try and stretch them a bit more and open them up because 4-4-2 wasn't stretching them enough.

"We've had a couple of chances. We've hit the post at the end.

"We want somebody to tuck those chances away because we've had enough chances today to win the game, and we haven't taken them.

"We got in enough goalscoring areas, [created] enough opportunities but we didn't take them today - that's what it's about.

"We said before the game [that] if we score a goal here or if we get two, we think we'll win the game. That just didn't work out in the end."