Paul Hurst gives reaction to Shrewsbury win and potential star injury

Shrewsbury produced one of the results of the season on Saturday as they beat relegation rivals Reading 3-2 at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.

They scored three outstanding individual goals taking a 2-0 lead through Jordan Shipley and Tom Bayliss early on.

But were pulled back by the Royals as Sam Smith and Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan scored.

Town led again through Tom Bloxham as the winger curled the ball into the top corner to register his first goal of the season for Shrewsbury - which ended up being the winner - at the end of the first half.

The only bad news on a wonderful day for Hurst and Shrewsbury was the groin injury sustained by Pierre just past the half-hour mark, and the boss gave an update on how the defender is doing.

He said: "He just said he has done it badly before, and it does not feel as bad as that - it is his groin, you could see he was really sore.

"I think it was pretty obvious for everyone to see that he did not look comfortable.

"I would imagine that will be a few weeks minimum, I don't have a true update, that is just looking at how he did it and having done an injury in that area before that would be a concern.

"But on that, you mention Ryan Bowman coming in. We lose Dan (Udoh) and we certainly didn't want to lose him, and then we lose Aaron during the game that early.

"Another big pat on the back for Jason coming in, I thought he did extremely well.

"I have spoken from the start, and people think sometimes you are just saying it to keep people happy, but it is a squad game, and everybody will be needed, and today was an example of that.

"I don't envisage Aaron being fit at all (to face Lincoln), but if he was I would have a decision to make because Jason came in and did not really put a foot wrong."

It was a superb performance from Hurst's men, and the boss revealed they changed tactics at half-time allowing the Royals to have more of the ball.

He said: "We had to win it in a different way. We changed tactics during the game.

“We got off to a flyer. We got pegged back. We showed really good character not to fold at that point in a big stadium in front of a big crowd.

“To go in 3-2 up was very pleasing and also a nice boost for the players at half-time.

“To be fair, when I walked in they were having a little bit of a moan at each other.

“But I just said to them, remember we are winning - and would we have taken being a goal in front at half-time prior to the game?

And the answer was, yes.

“There was obviously an element of frustration with some of the performance and getting pegged back. But at the same time, we were in front.

“We made some tactical tweaks so we gave up more possession in that second half.

“I just felt the times we went chasing, that was when we looked more vulnerable.

“I’ve said openly I like to try and press. But also I think fitness-wise that would have been too much to ask against a team that plays like Reading.

“We gave up possession and defended our box well. I think they did have territory. They had possession.

“But I think Marko only had one really good save to make which is extremely pleasing.”