Paul Hurst delighted with Shrewsbury performance
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst praised his side’s effort and discipline after they stormed to a 3-0 home win against Leyton Orient.
After a slow start to the season, Town picked up their first points of the season in sensational fashion against an O’s side who remain pointless at the bottom of League One.
And while two eye-catching goals from Tom Bloxham and Leo Castledine’s first senior strike will grab the headlines, Hurst was keen to focus on Salop’s first clean sheet in nearly five months.
“Nothing is ever easy, and at times throughout the afternoon Orient had a lot of the ball,” he admitted. “What we did do well is limit them, they’ve only had one shot on target I think so I thought we worked and were really disciplined.”
Hurst added: “The goals, especially the first two, were very good for different reasons and worthy of winning any game.”
“Then the third one at the end there was just the icing on the cake.”
The last time Salop registered a shut-out was on April 1, when they drew 0-0 at home to Bristol Rovers.
Despite spending large spells of the game without the ball, having just 27 per cent possession, Salop were never really threatened by Richie Wellens' forward players.
“We spoke about that (clean sheet), because it’s been a long time coming,” he said. “It’s an obvious statement, but you give yourself a chance and we want to be hard to play against, which today I think we were.
“We’ve got to keep this going because we know the challenges lying ahead.”
The Town boss was also keen to praise super-sub Bloxham, whose thunderous effort on 82 minutes gave Salop a much-needed two-goal lead.
After collecting Mal Benning’s pass left of centre 25 yards from goal, the 20-year-old Town academy graduate unleashed an unstoppable effort that crashed into the top corner of Zach Hemming’s goal via the crossbar.
“It wouldn’t matter if they had two or three keepers in there realistically, it was a fantastic strike,” Hurst said. “I know he’s capable of that in terms of when he hits the ball. I think about the penalty he hit here; he can really strike a ball and finish.
“He’s just got to make sure he gets himself in positions to score from.”
He continued: “As soon as he took that touch I knew he was going to have an attempt at goal, but I certainly wasn’t sure if it would be blocked or not.
“I have to say it wasn’t until the third goal went in that I turned to the lads on the bench and said, ‘we might win this today.’
