GARY Bowyer praised his injury-hit side after their battling 1-1 draw at Shrewsbury Town this afternoon in the Emirates FA Cup First Round, saying that they dealt with adversity well.

Having already lost Harry Pritchard before the match, James Vaughan picked up an ankle knock early in the second half and had to leave the pitch.

That led Bowyer to experiment with playing five at the back, after introducing Kelvin Mellor for Vaughan, and playing Aramide Oteh and Dylan Connolly up front together.

Speaking after the game, Bowyer said: "We gave a really good account of ourselves. We lost Harry Pritchard in the week through illness and then the boys came here today and gave everything, that's all we ask from them.

"We're absolutely delighted with certain aspects that we can take away from today. Their last two games here, Shrewsbury have beaten Sunderland and Peterborough.

"We could have been 1-0 up in the first minute (through Dylan Connolly) and then we did score.

"That's credit to Remi (Oteh) chasing a great flick on from Vaughany. We came off it a little bit, and they scored a disappointing goal from our point of view.

"We were disappointed to lose James Vaughan, but we changed the formation and I was delighted with how the players went about it after that.

"We put Kelvin alongside Adam (Henley), then had Anton (Anthony O'Connor), Ben (Richards-Everton) and Connor (Wood) and went to a five.

"It was a good experiment for us and I was able to see that it worked."

Wood made great inroads down the left hand side throughout, especially in the second half.

Addressing his full back's individual performance, Bowyer said: "That's what he's got to do when he plays in those positions. He needs to believe in himself more and simplify his game.

"When he does deliver balls in like that, you know, Jermaine Anderson could quite easily have a hat-trick today and Ben's hit the post."

Asked about the replay back at Valley Parade on November 19, Bowyer said: "Neither manager would have wanted a replay I don't think.

"But at the start of the day we wanted to be in the hat for the next round and that's exactly what we are.

"We're delighted with that bit, and we'll take the positives away from today."