It was the same old story for Town – once again we failed to capitalise on a great chance to pick up our second league away win of the season, writes Shrewsbury blogger James Pugh.

The derby game against Port Vale was definitely two points lost as we created enough chances to win and failed to capitalise on our opponents going down to ten men.

All-in-all the performance was a decent one, but I have to question the negative tactics of Simpson playing only one man up front.

Defending hasn’t been a problem this season; scoring away from home has. It says a lot about the faith the manger has in his strikers that he starts with one against a team which is struggling in the division.

The performance of the referee didn’t help matters, and although I am biased, I didn’t think Pugh deserved to be sent off for his challenge and thought that Vale were lucky not to be reduced to nine men when one of their players fouled Humphreys.

You have to feel some sympathy for Pugh. He is been in the darkness all season and when he finally gets his chances, the referee blows it for him. I just hope Simpson gives him another chance because he offers us flair which is what some of the others in midfield don’t.

There were certainly positives to take from the game. I thought Leslie, Humphreys and the defence had decent games and Walker took his much-needed goal well.

But I have to say it – it’s another away game without a win and with teams around us dropping points we had a chance to go third and pull away from some of the other promotion chasers.

Things haven’t been going to well on the transfer front either, with Joss Labadie and Jamie White both being injured and set to miss the rest of the season. With Hunt departing and with the injury to McIntyre against Vale, we are a bit short in numbers at the moment.

I was sad to see Hunt go because he is a player who has been blighted by injury. We didn’t see the best of him. I agree with Simpson’s decision to let him go though because we need players who will remain fit and his release means we will have money to spend on new players.

One man who has come in is the much-travelled striker Nick Chadwick. Once regarded as a highly promising player at Everton, his career has also been blighted by injury.

I don’t doubt his talent, but I have question marks over will he just be another David Hunt and also he is a similar player to the other strikers we have got at the club. We need someone with pace! It’s also worrying that he hardly played for Hereford this season and they are the lowest scorers in League One.

One thing is clear is that we need to bring in players in this transfer window. If we don’t then I don’t think we will last the pace and will just miss out on promotion. We need a quick striker and two midfielders – one of them who can create and score goals.

Simpson won’t find it easy because a lot of clubs don’t like to part with players at this stage of the season. I just hope Simpson doesn’t fall in the trap of bringing in kids with no experience or players from non-league clubs.