Wigan Athletic man accused of punch during Shrewsbury Town clash

Matt Smith grabbed the only goal just before the hour mark to give Latics a very hard-fought win against a Shrews side who were camped in the visitors' box for the last half an hour.

But Hurst felt his side were hard done by, having deserved something from the game.

“It’s frustrating," he said. "I don’t think, overall, the players deserved to lose, but ultimately we have. And I think on a day like today, we gave them a lift in terms of their goal.

“I think for the majority of the game we were the team pushing to be on top. Once they get in front, they were probably happy defending deep and not committing men forward."

Hurst also gave backhanded praise to Latics goalkeeper Sam Tickle, before referring to the incident which - in his view - saw Latics escape a clear red card.

"I can’t imagine – although they ended up keeping a clean sheet – their bench would have been too happy with the amount of crosses and set-plays they had to defend,” added the Shrewsbury chief.

“Their goalkeeper has made an excellent save from Aaron Pierre. He has made in my view what looks to be a lucky save from Chey Dunkley.

“He was in no-man's-land and sort of half-turns his back on it and it somehow hits him.

“Then something we have just seen that I didn’t notice during the game...Chey Dunkley has his shirt ripped over his head.

“He then has a sort of punch thrown at him. All in a line where the referee should be seeing.

“I didn’t see it at the time. But I’ve seen it back, it is almost comical. It's that’s bad what is going on in there.

“We all know there is physical contact and tussling. But that was way too far. It has to be a penalty. It would have been nice to get that. That adds to the frustration.”