Full-back Ben Herd today braced Shrewsbury Town for “six cup finals” after admitting: “We’ve let ourselves down.”Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Bury - the eighth reverse at Oteley Road this season - extended Town’s winless sequence to 13 games, while they have managed just one victory in the calender year.
Despite having a 10-point buffer over bottom two Mansfield and Wrexham, Town are left anxiously looking over their shoulders heading into the season’s closing stretch.
Herd admitted there is no time for his side to dwell on their poor run.
“We are still in it (relegation trouble),” said the 21-year-old. “We have still got Wrexham and Mansfield to play - we’ve got six games left and every one of them is proverbial cup final.
“The run we are on at the moment is awful. It’s a really disappointing season - we have let people down and we have let ourselves down.
“But if you sit around and sulk, you will only lurch into another problem.
“I always think if you keep working hard you will get your reward.”
Town’s recent run means they will have to keep one eye on tomorrow’s crucial bottom-of-the-table clash between Mansfield and Wrexham.
But manager Paul Simpson will instead focus on lifting his players for the double header at Chesterfield and Morecambe next week after what he described as the poorest of the four performances he has overseen.
“Over the 90 minutes, it was probably the most disappointing display and we’ve got to make sure we get better,” said the manager.
“I knew when I got the job there were going to be problems - you don’t tend to get jobs if everything is rosy.
“I know the squad needs to be changed around but we’ve got to keep going with what we have got at the moment and we need the players who are here to start producing out there on the pitch.
“It makes it a horrible week for everybody because training is going to be tough. We have taken one point out of two games against teams at the bottom (Notts County and Bury) and we have to be better than that.”
12 Comments
Why at Shrewsbury do the players have to make comments to the media,I can understand it when we win, but not when we dont. All the players should do is concentrate on fitness, strength and football ability, we are not paying them to do anything else. This is now getting very serious and the job Paul has to do is getting harder. I for one expect more. cut the cackle and get on with football.
We were by far the better team on Saturday but just couldnt find the net.Bury didnt cause us too many problems at the back but possed a few in midfield.I honestly believe if we had gone to a 3-5-3 formation we would have taken the points but Simmos the one getting paid so its his decision.As we are finding it hard to get a goal at present maybe we should play three strikers like Rotherham have been doing all season ( 4-3-3 ) its been a good formation for them and I thought we looked good when weve gone down that road.One other thing I would like to see Simmo try when we are safe ( please God )is that if hes going to have one guy up front to try Pughey.I think he would be a nightmare running at defenders.Has anyone got any other ideas?I should like to hear them.
dodger - it was a “good formation” for Rotherham Saturday. They lost 5 -1.!!!!!!!
dodger You are right we were the better team, our problem is goals. I think we are better with a loan striker as all our forwards are miss firing. Putting more of them in only makes the problem worse. Opposition defenders pick up all the loose balls easily making our strikers look like goal hangers. We should only play one of them and look to score from midfield where we have the extra man. We should adopt a shoot on sight from midfield policy, we then have a chance from a lucky rebound. Humping it at the forwards is to predictable and any half decent defence quickly turns it to their advantage. Bury had a half hearted poke from 25 yds as there was nothing else on and it won them the game. I firmly believe you make you own luck. Get the ball in their area & you have the chance of a penalty, rebound, scuffed clearance ,or even an own goal. We will gladly take anything at the moment.
Herd is a good one to comment,he was at fault for their goal,he must have back peddled at least thee yardds without trying to tackle the Bury goal scorrer.
Pughey should be given a free role in midfield along with Ben and have the sole objective of raiding them from midfield and getting the ball into the area. Pughey as a lone striker just does not do it for me, he needs to run at defenders from deep.
We keep hearing about how bad the players feel about the threatening situation THEY have got themselves into, but nothing positive ever comes from such self criticism. Time and again last Saturday it was either ‘get rid of it’ in panic or when an opponent was beaten, then take another touch to give them a second chance. Most of the few goals scored this season have come from set pieces, yet the ball is never aimed at the sticks, but curled right or left to put the opponents defence on equal terms to clear it. Back to basics is whats needed , and if we are going down then at least play some of the youngsters like Leslie and Ryan who are not responsible for this mess that Herd,McIntyre,Garner etc. have got us into.
Pugh should be released og transfer listed, he has not been as good as he should. I saw him against Brentford (away), and he were completly awful, he was then replaced by Humphreys, who is a much more valuable player who can pace.
Dennis what I mean is that Rotherham dont score many either but play a settled formation that gives them the maximum chances of scoring.Even though they havent been any great shakes this season they still have 8 points more than us ( and no anxiety to put up with).We have choped and changed all season and now we need a settled side & formation.I was surprised to see Simos two new signings, I was expecting an experienced mid fielder and striker to join.Lee has been very good as you’d expect of an ex captain of Donny Rovers and is very much in the Tinson mould and if he joins full time he would be my choice for captain and let Ben concentrate on creating chances.Kelvins still a bit young I think.How should Town go into these last games? All out for a win or all out for a draw?
Statistic it is always better either to win or loose a game. If you win 23 an loose 23 in a season, you have 69 point - well near a play-off spot. If you spread it like 15 win 16 drawn and 15 lost, you get 61 point, thats only an example.
- So for the last 6 games, 3 win and 3 lost, rather that 6 drawn - and town will pull save.
A mix of wins and losses are ok, its draws that are bad news. If you draw every game thats 46pts and that should see you relegated. So it is possible for a team to go a season unbeaten and still go down.
With Mansfield beating Wrexham tonight the gap to second bottom is down to 7 points. We still have to play Mansfield away and we never get anything there. On current form we are the second worst team in this division and there’s now a real real danger that we may finish in that position. It is looking more likely that the two home games against Wrexham and Chester will probably decide our fate. I know it’s early days but I am not feeling comfortable with Simpson,I think he was appointed in haste and other contenders such as Steve Cotterill would have been a better choice, lets hope he proves me wrong!.