Just when Shrewsbury Town thought it couldn’t get any worse on the road, along comes their heaviest defeat of the season to send their away form plummeting to new depths.

Optimism was high in all quarters that the best part of seven months of searching for a League victory away from the Prostar Stadium would finally end at Macclesfield on Saturday.

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One limp performance later and that prospect appears as distant as ever.

What began as a dip in form on the road and then developed into a minor irritation now appears to have transcended into a major pyschological issue for Town’s crest-fallen players.

The mathematics show that automatic promotion is still up for grabs as all of the division’s leading lights continue to be blighted by inconsistency.

And the exceptional record on home territory is likely to keep Town in the promotion mix for the remainder of the season.

But, with each passing defeat, it is getting harder to believe Shrewsbury are capable of producing the consistent run they require away from home to make the top three dream a reality.

For many observers, the best Shrewsbury can realistically hope for now is a top seven finish and then take their chances in the play-off lottery.

And not even that can be wholly guaranteed if there are many more deflating afternoons like this for their long-suffering away followers to digest.

Whatever the personnel – and four changes were made here – Shrewsbury still can’t find that winning formula on the road.

That remains a huge source of frustration for manager, staff and players, as the winless streak extends to 16.

And it is a situation which needs to be rectified immediately if there is to be a happy ending to a season which has excited at times and infuriated at others.

Arguably the most annoying part of Saturday’s events was that Macclesfield – a side that has lost nine home games already this season – were not required to perform particularly well to register an ultimately comfortable victory.

Their brand of no-frills, no-mistakes football was more than enough to defeat a Shrewsbury team which was lacking in belief and ideas from the moment Shane Cansdell-Sherriff put through his own net on 19 minutes.

It was a Town performance symptomatic of so many others on their travels this season.

The traditional bright start was in evidence and a few missed chances thrown in for good measure.

The concession of a poor goal then gave the opposition a massive lift and Town failed to produce any kind of meaningful response.

An all too depressingly familiar tale and one played on an afternoon when Shrewsbury – who gave debuts to midweek signings Moses Ashikodi and David Warroll – started brightly enough

Ben Davies forced Jon Brain into three smart saves in the opening 30 minutes and had a goal disallowed for a narrow offside decision, while Terry Dunfield couldn’t get the necessary power in a header to score against his former club.

But amid all of that came another poor goal conceded on their travels.

There was little trouble brewing when Lee Bell dinked a hopeful free-kick into the box from a central position.

Cansdell-Sherriff appeared under little pressure but, whether it be a mis-timed header or poor communication from team-mates, the recalled Australian could only flick the ball over Luke Daniels and into his own net.

Town dropped badly off the pace either side of the interval and they were fortunate not to go two down when Daniels produced a fine save when Gareth Evans broke clear.

Ashikodi missed a golden chance to level within a minute of the re-start when he volleyed wide of the target from close range, but much of Town’s second half performance lacked direction.

Indeed, a Grant Holt shot on 83 minutes – their first effort on target after the break – was greeted with ironic cheers from the visiting supporters.

By then, the game was up as Macclesfield had forged further ahead.

Ben Herd appeared fortunate to escape a red card when he appeared the last men when he up-ended Simon Yeo in the box on 53 minutes, but Town’s luck ran out when Evans slotted home the resulting penalty.

Shrewsbury mustered some chances in the closing stages with Holt going close on three occasions but it was all too little too late.

And their misery was completed in injury time when Town’s defence was caught square and Nat Brown rounded Daniels before slotting into an empty net.

By James Garrison