Assistant boss Peter Atherton praised Wanderers’ fightback but rued two dropped points as Wanderers’ winning run came to an end, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites battled back from two goals down at half-time against Shrewsbury to secure a 2-2 draw.
Kyle Dempsey and Szabi Schön got the goals but despite dominating the second half there was to be no winner as Ian Evatt’s men missed out on a fourth successive league victory before Evatt was sent off after the final whistle.
“It was a disappointing first half. We didn't hit the levels we expected. Obviously, they came with a game plan to slow it down and we just didn't add our usual quality to the game,” admitted joint assistant manager Atherton.
“The second half was a great response from the lads. The manager asked for that and we got exactly what we wanted with an early goal in the second half. Then we got the second goal but just couldn't go on and get that third.
“Demps has been scoring and creating chances and getting opportunities throughout all the games recently so that's been a positive. It was nice for him to get on the score sheet again and good for Szabi to get off the mark.
“The second half was one-way traffic. We totally dominated and we did have chances and half chances towards the end but unfortunately none of those went over the line. It’s a good comeback but a disappointing result overall.
“After the run we've been on recently we wanted to build on that and to drop two points at home was disappointing.”
EFL rules meant Atherton was obliged to take on post-match media duties after Evatt’s dismissal in an incident which also saw Town defender Morgan Feeney receive a yellow card.
“He said he went over to the referee asking, with stoppages in stoppage time, and wondering why he blew up actually before the eight (allocated) minutes,” added the joint Wanderers’ number-two.
“He was just questioning that then one of their players got involved in a little bit of something. Unfortunately, he got a red card and their play got a yellow card and I’m not quite sure exactly what happened. We'll look into that.”
Wanderers’ goalkeeper Nathan Baxter missed his first league game of the season with a muscle injury as Luke Southwood made his league debut for the Whites.
Southwood now heads of on international duty with Northern Ireland, with Wanderers recalling Luke Hutchinson from his loan spell at Marine to help plug the gap going into next Tuesday’s home Bristol Street Motors Trophy tie against Aston Villa U21s.