Shane Cansdell-Sherriff of Shrewsbury Town and Chris O'Grady of Rochdale

Two defeats in a week and out of the play-off positions has given every Town fan cause to be worried, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

Sometimes as a fan you have to put your hand up and say you were beaten by a superior team. This was certainly the case on Saturday as we were outplayed by league leaders Rochdale who were unlucky not to beat us by a bigger margin.

I think we can kiss goodbye to automatic promotion as I feel there is something missing in the side which has been missing all season. It may just be consistency or something deeper like mental strength which I mentioned in last week’s blog.

Our cause has not been helped by the news that top scorer Dave Hibbert picked up a groin injury in training prior to the Rochdale match which has ruled him out for three to four weeks. This is of great concern as we are coming towards the business end of the season and our other striking options aren’t great.

Two players – Bright and Cureton – are yet to break their duck in the league, while the other – Robinson – has been a big flop this season. How concerned are fans about the loss of Hibbert?

Psychologically, falling outside the play-off positions is a big thing and the sooner we put it right the better. There are still plenty of points to play for and it is such a tight league that come the final day of the season I anticipate much will still need to be resolved.

I am confident Town will still have something to play for, but what about the rest of the fans?

Are strongest eleven is as good as most teams in the league and with a bit of luck and a lot of support, come the end of the Port Vale game on May 8 we will be making play-off arrangements.

Every team needs luck, but every team needs to make their own luck and as well as not giving away penalties we need to cut out players picking up needless suspensions – yes Cansdell-Sherriff this means you!

Confidence among the players and fans must be low at the moment after the last two games. The remedy for this and getting our promotion challenge back on track is to beat Aldershot away on Saturday.

Aldershot are probably one of the most entertaining teams in the division as they score and concede lots of goals and they will be looking to avenge the 3-1 defeat we handed out to them in the reverse fixture in October.