Wally Downes felt the referee denied his side a clear penalty and the chance to take all three points today, but he said that Wimbledon allowed Shrewsbury to gain too much possession after the break.
In his post-match interview, Wally said that the decision by Graham Salisbury not to award a penalty for a challenge on Marcus Forss was a turning point.
“If the decision had gone for us in the first-half and one hadn’t been cleared off the line, I think we would have been away and gone at half-time. We would have been 2-0 up and the game is different, but it wasn’t and we had to be stronger as a group in the second-half. We allowed them to get on top of us. Whatever their manager said to them at half-time must have been along the lines of ‘they should be away and gone, but they’re not and we are still in the game’. After five minutes of the second-half they were a bit more confident on the ball and they retained possession. We sunk a little bit there.
“Marcus is a very good finisher and with the goalkeeper out of the way and an open goal I could have put that in, let alone Marcus. The only way the guy could clear it was to come right through him, which he did. He’s got the ball after he’s wiped Marcus out. First of all, it’s a goal and Marcus scores. That doesn’t happen, he’s fouled and it’s a penalty. If not, then a corner. There were four possible outcomes and he’s come up with the wrong one out of the four.
“The way we played in the first-half we had done enough to be away and gone today. It’s a learning process. I keep saying we are a young side, but we are progressing and we are playing well in spurts. Putting it together for the whole 90 minutes is a difficult thing, but we just have to make sure that we stay competitive and stay in the games. When the win comes, another will follow that and the chests will be puffed out. The boys will be gaining in confidence all the time and that’s when the results will turn for us.
“We should have been up closer to them and not have allowed them to have so much of the ball. We should have retained possession better than we did, but being two clear goals ahead in the first-half was really the issue. I felt we had done enough in the first-half to be two clear and then we could have seen it though and increased the confidence.”
The full video interview with Wally can be viewed below.