Paul Hurst hails Abo Eisa display as Shrewsbury are held by Bury

Posted Sunday, April 22, 2018 by PA

Boss Paul Hurst was impressed with the contribution of Abo Eisa after Shrewsbury’s January signing marked his first Football League start by scoring an excellent goal in the 1-1 draw with Bury.

Eisa, who has made the step up from Wealdstone in National League South, ran from the halfway line before firing home a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area to give Shrewsbury a 13th-minute lead.

But relegated Bury hit back to secure a point with an equaliser from Jay O’Shea midway through the second half.

“He had some good moments and he can be pleased,” said Hurst of winger Eisa, who had previously been introduced twice from the bench. “He’s edged forward each performance with something better.”

Hurst described Shrewsbury’s performance as “patchy” on a day they slipped seven points behind second-placed Blackburn in the race for automatic promotion with just three games to play.

But the point they picked up means they cannot finish any lower than third in League One.

Hurst added: “It’s still a really good points total, we’re delighted with that, but what we don’t want to do is just be satisfied with finishing third and that’s it.

“We know we can’t go any lower and realistically we’re not going to go higher, so we know where we’ve finished in the league – win, lose or draw the remaining games, but what we have got to do is get ready for the play-offs.”

Bury have battled their way to two away draws since their relegation was confirmed last weekend.

They pulled level in the 66th minute as O’Shea burst into the box from a quickly-taken free-kick to drill a low shot past goalkeeper Dean Henderson.

Bury manager Ryan Lowe said: “Someone told me that we were 7/1 to win so to come to Shrewsbury, who have had a great season under Hursty, now into the play-offs to potentially get promotion, to come here and take a point off them, but not only that, to take four points off them over the course of the season, is a big plus for us.

“We possibly could have gone on and won it, so happy with the point as always, the away performance, but I thought we dominated large parts of that game, so, yes, really pleased.”

Lowe, a former Shrewsbury striker, added: “With all due respect to Shrewsbury, I think you’ve got to give us a lot of credit because we played some good attacking football and just lacked that little bit of quality again, as we’ve always done this season, from Christmas onwards.”