Paul Hurst praises Shrewsbury commitment despite 'soft' Bolton opener

Salop conceded second-half goals to Mark Beevers and Adam Le Fondre as Bolton made it five wins in the bounce, sending Town to within one point of the bottom four.

Hurst's side went toe-to-toe with their high-flying visitors, in front of more than 7,500 at Greenhous Meadow, but a soft opener early in the second period as shot-stopper Jayson Leutwiler was beaten to a long throw by Beevers.

"I don't think he did have to come. I said to him if he does then he has to come and get it.

"That's the life of a goalkeeper. The mistakes you make are often costly and it happened today because I don't think realistically there was any need to come.

"It wasn't right in there, he's come a long way and doesn't get there. Beevers celebrated I don't know if it hit his head or not, I thought it might've gone in off one of ours but either way it'd probably have gone into Jayson's hands had he stayed where he should have.

"It's disappointing because I thought if anything we were slightly better and looked quite dangerous.

"We played to a game plan, the lads stuck to it well and caused them some problems."

Hurst set his side up in a 3-5-2 for the first time in his Meadow tenure as Town matched up Bolton's style.

And the rugged Trotters looked to profit from any set plays, long throws and high balls. Town dealt with the majority, until they were undone in the 50th minute.

But Hurst still saw positives.

He added: "I thought they were a committed team out there. I thought we had the better of it in the first half in particular.

"We made the keeper make a couple of saves. I don't think Jayson's had a much to do all day, but Bolton are the type of side with the experience and physicality that we always thought the first goal would be a big goal.

"And that's where my frustration lies because it was a very soft goal. We picked a team that could give us a better chance to stand up to that physical side, we had a little bit of a bonus with Madine going off from an aerial point of view.

"But I thought we defended most set plays and long throws pretty well. But we made a wrong decision back there and found ourselves behind.

"That's where we've got to be a little bit stronger mentally but Bolton did make it difficult, they've won a lot of games 1-0 and kept a lot of clean sheets.

"You look at the back three, they've all played higher and expect them to play higher. We didn't concede four, that's been the common theme, but disappointed in the goal that put us on the back foot.