Steve Cotterill: Shrewsbury deserved ‘big win’ over Carlisle

Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill felt his side more than deserved their thrilling 3-2 Carabao Cup win over Carlisle.

United took the lead after Ryan Edmondson scored his first Carlisle goal after 13 minutes.

Luke Leahy levelled for Town with a fine free-kick in first-half stoppage time.

Dan Udoh spun well to give the Shrews the lead, before Kristian Dennis controlled and finished to level with nine minutes to go.

But Chey Dunkley put Shrewsbury through after getting on the end of Matthew Pennington’s free-kick with four minutes to go.

“It was a tough game, but I think we deserved it in the end,” said Cotterill.

“They are in the upper echelons of their league and we are in the bottom echelons of ours.

“It was a big win for us and I’m really pleased for the lads. I’ve seen the work they have put in to try and get a result.

“There will be a team that gets knocked out tonight and no-one will have seen it coming and on nights like this you have to make sure you’re not the team.

“We were the better team and did enough to win the game.”

Carlisle boss Paul Simpson wants his side to build on what he classed as an excellent performance.

“We played really good football and it was an excellent performance,” he said.

“For long periods we have dominated and created some really good opportunities.

“Sadly we’ve come away with nothing. We have to dust ourselves down now for the next league game.

“If we want to be a good team we have to do everything we can to make sure we don’t lose two in a row.

“It was one of the poorest refereeing decisions I have seen for a long time, but poor refereeing is not why we lost.”

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