Boss Steven Schumacher felt one goal would swing it Wanderers’ way once they got over their ‘rubbish start’ at Shrewsbury, writes Pete Oliver.
For the second Saturday running, Schumacher’s men came from behind to secure a vital three points as a goal from birthday boy Eoin Toal and John McAtee’s classy double set up an exciting 3-2 win.
Wanderers are now just outside the League One play-off zone on goal difference after they wiped out Shrewsbury’s half-time lead to record fourth win in five league games.
“Yep, a huge three points,” said Schumacher after enjoying his first away win as the Whites’ head coach. “Obviously, it wasn’t totally the way we wanted the game to go. I thought for the opening 30 minutes we were rubbish really. Simply wasn't acceptable, not good enough.
“We expected Shrewsbury to come out and start the game fast. We spoke a lot about it, that they've been in good form here, and to be ready for what's coming. But I just think they were better than us and they fully deserved their goal.
“But credit to the players, they stuck at it. We finally made a pass to a white shirt after about 30 minutes and got going and the last 15 minutes of the first half was good.
“So that was the message at half-time; ‘let's start the next 45-minute period like we've just finished that one and if we get a goal then we'll win the game’.
“It wasn’t the type of goal we expected (from Toal) but you could see the lads just grow in confidence from that moment and fair play to John McAteer, as well, to get two goals, really well-worked goals, and it was a better performance all round from everybody.”
Wanderers’ fightback and three goals all came in front of another sold-out away end and despite an injury-time second from the Shrews, the Whites’ fans were able to celebrate a win which keeps Schumacher’s buoyant side firmly in the play-off race with a home game to come against sixth-place Leyton Orient next Saturday.
“That's it, 15 games to go and we need to make sure that we're in the mix,” Schumacher added. “It's dead important that we keep trying to get better. There's loads of things that we've seen in the first four games that we can work on so having a clear week next week is going to give us a chance to really sit down and go into detail with a few things because we're a good team.
“We've got some good players, but there's things as well that we can definitely improve with as a whole unit so we'll try and do that, try and keep ourselves in the hunt and have that end of the season that we all want.
“I said on Thursday that the fans need to see a team that competes and fights and does all the ugly side of the game and for half an hour, we didn't quite do that well enough.
“But for the last hour of the game, they certainly showed their effort and I'm sure the fans appreciated it. We appreciated the support and to score three goals in front of them and get three points is the main thing. We get on, we get ready to go again for next Saturday and I can't wait.”