Bolton v Shrewsbury: Paul Hurst urging Salop to be humble in search of safety

The Town head coach was less than impressed by his team’s display on Saturday as Shrewsbury fell to a 2-0 loss at home to Wycombe Wanderers.

Fortunately for Shrewsbury, results elsewhere went their way again and they got out of jail – keeping their six-point buffer to the bottom four.

And Hurst wants his side to be more ‘humble’.

“Part of being a footballer is practicing your craft and turning up when it matters,” he said. “Putting the effort in day in and day out, because we have not got any superstars in that dressing room that can just turn up having been out all week and then suddenly score a hat-trick.

“That does not happen. We have got to be a lot more humble, in terms of where we are at, what we are and the quality that we have got. And be willing to do a lot of the ugly things well.

“That team on Saturday, and I meant to say it before, was the same team that went out against Northampton – with the exception of Aaron Pierre and Tom Flanagan.

“Now you look at those two performances and there is absolute night and day. If it is a new manager coming that is a load of rubbish. It is the same players. They can put that effort in they can perform like that if they want, to a degree, admittedly against different opposition, who cause different issues.

“For the third game in a row, I am talking about what I think is a game that was there for the winning had we approached it in a better way.”

Shrewsbury have shown, on a few occasions this season they have potential. They beat second-placed Derby 1-0 while they also produced a superb display in Hurst’s first game in charge at Northampton – but they have not been able to produce that on a regular basis.

“It is an easy thing to say but ultimately consistency is what determines a good team or a bad team,” he continued. “You cannot just turn up when you feel like it. The players have been told a couple of things.

“I have had some conversations last week and people are talking about whether someone is a good player, or whether they could have been a good player or they could score goals.

“That is irrelevant because they have not done it. And that is why I look at people who make the most out of what attributes they have and I look at their careers and see what they have done and I have got a lot of admiration for those types of players.

“Unless you are really really unfortunate you tend to find your level, some people say that is because they don’t work hard enough but that is part of being a footballer.”

Bolton have their own race to win. If they want to keep pace with Derby then they simply must beat Salop on Tuesday evening otherwise their automatic promotion hopes will be over.