New boss Paul Hurst was delighted as his Shrewsbury team claimed a fully-deserved win over in-form Northampton in Sky Bet League One at Sixfields on Saturday.
Hurst returned to the hot seat at the Croud Meadow on Tuesday, replacing Matt Taylor who was sacked last weekend after a run of seven defeats in eight matches.
And Hurst had an immediate impact as the Shrews claimed three precious points against a Cobblers side that had lost just two in 12 going into Saturday’s encounter.
The win lifted the Shrews five places up the table to 15th, and saw them go six points clear of the drop zone, with second-half goals from Dan Udoh and Chey Dunkley sealing the result.
Shrews were the better side throughout, and could have won by more, and a delighted Hurst said: “I think it was a very well deserved three points.
“It’s not like we were lucky, or hitting them on the break or anything like that.
“I thought all the players did well, they all had moments in the game and a lot of what we tried to implement, we saw bits of that, certainly in terms of what Northampton offered.
“I think we nullified a lot of their threat, and hopefully the players will take confidence from it.
“But I have just said to the players, and I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade, but it is just one game so we are not going to get carried away.
“I had some apprehension before the game, and I was still a bit concerned at half-time because the players had put so much into that first half.
“But they seemed to find more energy when they needed it, and for a lot of that second half we had a really good spell where we had attack after attack, but it took us a little while to get in front.
“We were beginning to wonder if we would get hit with a sucker-punch, but we didn’t, and I think Marco Marosi has only had to make one real save, so I am really pleased.”
The result saw the Cobblers lose for the first time in 2024, and brought the Cobblers fans back to earth following their thrilling 3-2 midweek win at Charlton.
Manager Jon Brady accepted his team were second best, saying: “I thought we looked leggy, and it looked like Tuesday night might have taken a lot out of us.
“I felt there was a new manager bounce for them, and they looked buoyant, and overall they deserved that today.
“In the last 13 games we haven’t had too many off days, but today was a bit of an off day for us.
“Of late we have set the standards where everybody is expecting us to turn it on, and for whatever reason we didn’t hit our usual standards.
“We had too many players who had an off day, but we have been consistent over the recent period so we are going to try and not get too low about it.
“We just have to regroup and dust ourselves down.”
