We looked lightweight — Dickov

ATHLETIC manager Paul Dickov pulled few punches after seeing his team exit the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at the first hurdle.

Shrewsbury came away from Boundary Park with a deserved 1-0 victory thanks to Steve Leslie’s neat strike seven minutes from full-time — inflicting a first defeat of the season on Dickov.

It was the fifth time in the past six seasons that an Athletic side has failed to make it through to the second round of this competition.

Jason Jarrett missed the game through illness and Ritchie Jones had a slight hamstring strain, but both are expected to return for the visit of Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

And after naming a strong line-up in a tournament he was keen to progress in, Dickov made his feelings perfectly clear following the exit to the in-form npower League Two side.

“I wasn’t getting carried away with the good start we have had but maybe other people were,” said the Athletic boss, who lost the services of his captain Reuben Hazell shortly before half-time with a thigh strain.

Hazell’s injury will be assessed this week.

“We were brought down to earth with a bump here, where we were beaten by a better team,” Dickov added.

“I thought we were out-fought and outplayed. All credit to Shrewsbury as they came here and played very well.

“We looked lightweight. We didn’t have enough shots or enough crosses — something we told the players about on Saturday and again the day before the game in training.

“We worked on it in training and told the players again before the game here.

“We are disappointed to have lost the game. But we won’t get too downbeat.

“We didn’t get carried away after our good start and at the same down we won’t be too negative here.”

The game was the second in succession that Athletic had failed to score in, after a run of seven goals in the previous four.

Dickov hopes that his side can find its form once again when Rovers come visiting on Saturday for the third home match inside eight days.

“You don’t shoot, you don’t score,” he added. “That is what we told the players and we worked for around an hour and 15 minutes the day before on crossing and finishing in training.

“That is the disappointing thing. The lads know themselves they haven’t played well, but the biggest disappointment for me was that we felt we got bullied a little bit.

“We have got to work harder, look back at the games we have done reasonably well in so far this season and get back to basics.

“One thing we do need is leaders out there as once Reuben went off, we were very quiet.

“We pick ourselves up now and get back to giving the fans something to shout about on Saturday, as we didn’t do that here.”