Blog: Town hit a rocky patch as they get knocked out of the cup and go three leagues game without a win, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

Town’s chances of picking up a trophy this season were dealt a major blow after a heartbreaking 6-5 penalty shootout defeat against Bury in last night’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

It is easy to point the finger at Mr Turner and question why he rested some key players on the night, but I for one think we had enough quality to beat Bury and in the end were unlucky not to go through after putting in a decent effort.

Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Torquay was probably Town’s worst performance of the season and in the end we were lucky to come away with a point against an impressive Torquay outfit.

A lot of key players went missing on the day, especially the midfield. Giving away one penalty is bad enough in a game, but two is just criminal and we will need to cut out the silly mistakes if we are to have any chance of achieving success this season.

With a quarter of the season nearly gone how would fans sum up Town’s start to the season?

In my view we can be very pleased with our efforts. We are well-placed in the table, have played entertaining football most of the time, have a good squad and manager, and have shown we can compete against the other top teams in the league.

Of course there is room for improvement. I have already touched on the need to cut out silly mistakes in games, but we also need to improve defensively and keep more clean sheets, and bring one or two new players in to freshen up the squad.

After three league games without a win Town need to get back to winning ways on Saturday and regain some of that early season confidence.

They face a trip to struggling Morecambe who have yet to win a league game at home. On paper it looks an easy three points, but in the past we have struggled with trips to Lancashire.