Sheffield United 2 Shrewsbury 0: Clough pleased with “professional job”

Early goals from Ryan Flynn and Stefan Scougall put the Blades in control and they never looked threatened.

The closest the visitors came was when Jon Taylor fired wide.

‘It was a big win for us,” said Clough. “Not spectacular, not sparkling at times but very professional. We got the goals early on and looked after it.

“When you’ve had such a game as we had with extra time on Tuesday, you never know how long you’re going to last into the game. I made a point of saying to the lads, try and start well and if we can get a goal early on then brilliant. We got two, and then you look after it.

“We have got some important home games coming up, so it’s nice that we do get the three points. And the clean sheets are going to be important.”

Shrewsbury caretaker manager Michael Jackson said: “I thought we had a lot of the ball in the first half - but we didn’t do enough with it.

“We needed to move the ball quicker, and we didn’t do what we should have done to hurt them. We have been more positive going forward of late - but we didn’t do that today.

“They were poor goals that we conceded and they should have been saved. We have done a lot of work on defending all week and we didn’t do a good enough job today.”