“When we’re bad, we’re bad.” Graham Turner’s rueful post-match reflection summed up an afternoon to forget for Shrewsbury Town on a ground where a winless streak which dates back to 1957 shows no signs of abating.

One month on from the dismal display at Torquay came a thoroughly unwelcome repeat at Aldershot.

If Town are searching for crumbs of comfort after Saturday’s untimely setback they can take some solace from their response to the last time an afternoon went quite as horribly wrong as this.

That 5-0 thumping at Torquay was followed by a 10-point return from four matches, and that is the minimum requirement once again if Shrewsbury are to sustain their automatic promotion hopes through the five-match mini-season which now sits before them.

Turner’s side still have time to recover.

But the stage of the season has been reached where any defeat – let alone one as demoralising as this – can be hugely damaging.

And, while their focus will rightly remain on overhauling one of Bury and Wycombe to finish in the top three, it will not have gone unnoticed that the chasing pack in behind are bunching together.

Shrewsbury will have spent the weekend attempting to solve the seemingly unfathomable, namely how a side which performed so admirably against Bradford, Rotherham and Macclesfield could look so lethargic and disjointed here.

From the first whistle the visitors looked short of the attacking zip and verve required to test a well drilled Aldershot defence.

And, at the other end, Shrewsbury’s backline suffered a rare bad day at the office in which all three goals could have been prevented.

The visitors were to give themselves a mountain to climb with the concession of two quickfire Aldershot goals in the first half.

There had been little to choose between the sides when Danny Hylton broke the deadlock on 25 minutes.

But he was to benefit from slack defending from David Raven who allowed the midfielder to twist and turn in the box before unleashing a 15-yard shot from which goalkeeper Ben Smith may also have done better.

Town could point to some mis-fortune for Aldershot’s second which arrived four minutes later and continued the recurring theme of Shrewsbury old boys finding the net against their former club.

It was a wicked deflection off Niall Canavan which enabled a seemingly harmless effort from distance off Ben Herd to wrong-foot Smith and nestle in the bottom corner.

But Town were also guilty of giving their popular former full-back far too much space to unleash his speculative effort.

Other than a Jon Taylor shot from distance which fizzed just over and a scuffed Mark Wright effort from inside the box, Shrewsbury failed to land a notable mark on Aldershot’s defence in that opening period.

And they never truly threatened a second half revival once Matt Harrold had headed a James Collins cross over the bar within minutes of the re­start.

Instead, Aldershot extended their unbeaten run to nine matches with the minimum of fuss and even had the luxury of adding a third goal when Hylton slotted home a 75th minute penalty after Mat Sadler caught the ankles of Jermaine McGlashan.

It could have got worse with McGlashan somehow firing over with the goal at his mercy from a tight angle.

In the dying stages, Tom Bradshaw was to force Jamie Young into a rare smart save after his arrival from the substitute bench but the game had long since gone for Town.

And how they respond to this significant setback will be decisive in determining how their season ends.

Match analysis by JAMES GARRISON