So the Simpson era began with a defeat, writes our Shrews Blogger James Pugh, but I saw enough from the performance to think that the future looks good for Town under the new manager – as long as we can stay up this season.

Quite simply I thought we were robbed in our 2-1 defeat to Macclesfield.

The only difference being two fantastic strikes from their players who will probably never do it again, including ex-Town man Jamie Tolley who was motivated from all the abuse he was getting from Town fans.

Apart from the result, my only criticism was the decision to start with one up front. For me it was a negative move against poor opposition and we looked a lot more threatening when we changed it in the second half and went with two up front.

I was impressed with us in the first half. We were playing some nice football on the ground, creating chances and defending very well.

In the second half we upped the tempo and got a well deserved goal, but then for five minutes late on we seemed to go to pieces. We didn’t close the men on the edge of the box down and that cost us the game.

I was impressed with Marc Pugh playing well for the full 90 minutes and I thought Luke Jones did very well on his comeback. For me Colin Murdoch is simply too slow.

If we had lost 2-1 to a team that dominated the game and looked a good side I can hold my hands up. But the team we played were absolutely rubbish and this makes the defeat all that much harder to digest.

To make matters worse, all the teams in the bottom five picked up points and threat of relegation grows.

The thing that we can’t do is start to get on the back of the new manager. As I have said we played well and he only he had a couple of days to train with the players.

And the most important thing is that the players were bought by Mr Peters.

I think Simpson made an excellent point after the game yesterday when he said he has inherited a squad that is too young and they are not experienced enough in knowing how to win games and how to hold on to leads.

He has identified that he needs more experienced players. I just hope he doesn’t go down the Kevin Ratcliffe route and buy players that are well past their best.

I think we will be fine under Simpson.

I hope the injuries to Marc Tierney and David Hunt weren’t serious – Tierney with a whack to the calf and Hunt with a suspected broken collar bone. The last thing we want is to have players missing games especially if we are going to be fighting a relegation battle.

What do fans think of the performance and do fans think we could actually get relegated? Have your say inthe Comment Box below.