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New boss Gavin Cowan defends approach as Shrewsbury hold Barnet
New Shrewsbury boss Gavin Cowan hailed his side’s work-rate after holding Barnet to a 0-0 draw in Shropshire.
Life after Michael Appleton started with a drab draw, but it was a much-needed point and performance for the Shrews.
The draw edged them three points clear of the relegation zone and Cowan was pleased to see his some early progress after taking control.
“It was hard work,” admitted Cowan. “You can see how hard the players had to work for that point.
“It wasn’t a pretty watch, I get it. The players weren’t like the Red Arrows offensively.
“My job was to come in here and solidify the team and make us hard to beat.
“We’ve had two days and I think the players deserve a lot of credit for the job and a half they put in out there.
“I’m very thankful for their hard work and their buy in.
“I know we rode our luck a little bit, but I thought the lads earned it.
“We need to evolve. But first and foremost we need to be hard to beat and that was a good start.
“We’ve had players come in out of the cold. We’ve had players lower than a snake’s belly. We were playing a team who had won four in five, had a bit of swagger about them.
“If we’d have gone chasing them we would have got hurt.
“I take full responsibility for players being so defensive, I asked them to do that.
“We want to be better going forward, but for the here and now we want to be resolute and the lads did that really well.”
The Bees were let ruing their missed chances after being denied by a number of Matt Cox saves.
Frustrated boss Dean Brennan said: “We knew the new manager bounce, the players give a little bit extra.
“The Shrewsbury players need to question themselves, if they gave that to the previous manager then he might still be here.
“I find football very frustrating. I think I’m the fourth longest serving manager at the moment.
“I find it very frustrating when I see managers sacked all the time. Players never get the blame, it’s always the manager.
“I knew how Gavin would play. He’s a very defensive manager, he was like that at Brackley.
“Fair play to him, he set them up well. It was up to us to break them down and we didn’t do that.
“It was a dominant performance from start to finish, but we were wasteful in front of goal.
“I’m happy with the commitment and the chances we created, but the last bit in front of goal is frustrating.
“I can only take the horse to water, I can’t make them drink it.”
