Missed chances to pull clear

Was it a happy Easter for the Town? Not really after two points from a possible six against two teams we would have hoped to have beaten, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

It was disappointing that we couldn’t hold on against Dagenham on Saturday and I thought Paul Simpson’s first match at home ended in a bit of anti-climax although the effort and performance in the second half couldn’t be faulted.

We are just about doing enough to ease our relegation fears but things could have been so much better if we could have got the six points that we probably deserved.

If we look at the positives from the two games – we look a lot stronger at the back and the performances of Leslie in both games, and Humphreys when he came on against Notts County were very good.

Let’s hope Simpson is the man to get the best out of our young players, something Peters couldn’t do.

Graeme Lee has also played very well in his first two games and looks a great piece of business by the new manager.

If Simpson can get players in like that then we should be able to build on what we have already got to push on for next season.

Something that I would like to see is the Town to be more positive in the first half and have a real go at teams.

We threatened to do this against Macclesfield but what was evident against County was that we just didn’t get going against them in the first half.

We are beginning to get an idea of how Simpson likes to play, with two wingers and a target man upfront.

Whether he is playing this way because of the players he has at his disposal or whether these are his preferred tactics is remained to be seen.

I still don’t think playing one striker up front is working at the moment and it will be interesting to see if Simpson keeps with this formation until the end of the season.

He doesn’t seem to know who is best strikers are at the moment which is understandable. For me it is Cooke and Hibbert.

What do fans think of who from the present squad will be at the club next season?

Early signs are that Murdoch and Madjo won’t remain at the club and I think the best thing Simpson can do is get rid of a lot of the dead wood that is in the squad at the moment and bring in fresh faces.

It would also be nice for us to sign players who have experience of playing at a higher level, like Lee, rather than players who do well in the non-league.