Demanding boss Steven Schumacher would have liked to have seen more goals at one end and fewer at the other but was happy with another pleasing performance as Wanderers progress towards full throttle, writes Pete Oliver.
The Whites made it four pre-season wins in a row with an emphatic 5-2 victory at Shrewsbury Town in their penultimate warm-up game.
Wanderers had too much for the League Two side and should have won by a bigger margin after missing some decent chances and allowing the Shrews to end a run of three successive shut-outs with two second-half goals.
“We wanted a clean sheet. We said at half-time we should have been 6-0 up,” insisted Schumacher on his return to the ground where he enjoyed his first away win as Wanderers’ head coach in February.
“We missed three big chances. We said ‘look, let's be professional, let's not give anything silly away, no errors if we can’. We then made a bit of an error to give them a corner. It was a bit sloppy giving a corner away in the first place and then we didn't quite get the passing right and their lad scores.
“We were disappointed with that and then the last goal, we’ve just got to win a tackle in the last minute. But it's one of them, you make mistakes and it's good to make them in pre-season.
“I thought we played really well. It was a better test of a game for us. It was something that looked like a bit of a league game. They've shortened the pitch and narrowed it up this year so we knew it was going to be competitive.
“Early on, there were some big tackles going in and it was a good contest. The moment we got our rhythm and scored a couple of goals, the game opened up a little bit.
“The only disappointment at half-time was that we didn't score six, we only scored three. But it was a good test for us and what we want at this stage. We want to keep improving. We're not the first article yet and there's loads for us to still work on.”
Shrewsbury might have tightened their pitch in preparation to tackle life in League Two but still couldn’t contain flying wingman Thierry Gale, who opened the scoring with his first Wanderers’ goal.
Fellow wideman Amario Cozier-Duberry opened his account in last Saturday’s win at Hibernian and Gale’s cracker again showed that the two summer recruits could add a major new threat to the Whites’ attacking play when the new season kicks off.
“The plan was to get him 60 minutes today,” added Schumacher, whose side entertains Championship outfit Preston North End this weekend before heading into their League One opener at Stockport County on Sunday-week.
“He's a little bit behind in his pre-season, as we know. We're building him up slowly, but he showed little glimpses on Saturday at Hibs of what he’s about and he showed a little bit more today.
“He took his goal really well. It was a brilliant finish. In the second half, he showed the ability to go on the outside as well and to his left foot. So when you've got that speed and that quality off both feet, it's difficult to mark against. Similar with Amario, he can go both ways so it was really good, positive. I’m pleased for him and he'll get stronger, I'm sure, as the weeks go on.”
Teenager Daeshon Lawrence also scored his first senior goal in a Wanderers’ shirt before Josh Dacres-Cogley, an own-goal and a superb solo effort from Max Conway rounded off another encouraging night.
Conway again started the game at left-back with Schumacher confirming afterwards that may be a position Wanderers still consider trying to strengthen with summer signing Richard Taylor set for three or four weeks out with a groin strain suffered at the weekend.
Watch the full post-match interview with the Head Coach on Wanderers TV