Michael Coulson of Grimsby Town and Craig Disley of Shrewsbury Town

One win in the last seven league games tells its own story and Town’s form will have to improve if we are to mount a serious promotion challenge, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

With respect to Grimsby, Town have got to beat this kind of opposition if they have any chance of getting promoted.

Saturday’s 0-0 result, and indeed Town’s recent form, has put doubts into the minds of fans about whether we are serious promotion challengers.

We are instead in danger of having an average season, which for us would be a dull mid-table finish with nothing to play for in the latter half of the season.

Calls continue to be made for changes, but what changes? Simpson has tried changing the personnel, but it hasn’t worked. Maybe he needs to change the formation and be more adventurous in the attacking half of the field. Or are we not good enough and need to start admitting sooner or later we are only a mid-table team with the current squad we have.

There’s still a long way to go in the season and I may be being too rash, but at the end of the day I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel unless Simpson performs miracles in the January transfer window and brings in more quality.

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but our attendances at home, which consistently topped more than 5,000 at the beginning of the season, have started to drop. This begs the question – are fans starting to lose belief?

On a more positive note, players continue to come back from injury and it was good to see Disley get some game time under his belt on Saturday.

I thought he was a brilliant signing by Simpson in the summer and although he has suffered from injuries, I think he has a lot more to give and is the type of creative and goalscoring midfielder we need in the middle of the park.

Next up for Town is the ultimate challenge against league leaders and in-form Rochdale who are starting to pull away from the teams below them.

Town’s recent performances against teams at the top, including games against Rotherham and Nott’s County, have been very encouraging and the players seem to raise their games against better opposition.

They will need to do the same if they are to get anything from Rochdale and it would be nice if they could start raising their performances against the weaker sides in the league.