Shrewsbury Town: Michael Appleton highlights key issue in Tranmere mauling
Michael Appleton was disappointed with Shrewsbury Town’s failure to compete in the first half of their thrashing against Tranmere.
Town fell to their first loss of the new campaign on a thoroughly miserable afternoon in Merseyside as Andy Crosby’s men smashed four past Salop to inflict misery on the more than 1,000 fans who made the trip to Prenton Park.
Town had a steady opening day against Bromley, where they picked up their first point of the season, but the defeat against the Super White Army was a dreadful result against a side who finished 20th in the fourth tier last season.
"The damage was done in the first 30 minutes with the two goals in quick succession," Appleton reflected.
"You try and make an impact, obviously, at half-time by bringing the new, fresh players on the pitch. By the way, I thought they did that.
"There were a couple of positives from the day. Certainly, the subs made an impact and made us better. But obviously, then going down to 10 men, it takes the sting out of it a little bit.
"I could have quite easily taken another striker off and been a little bit more solid. But, you know, I felt like 2-0. If we did score a goal, we hadn't really asked enough questions, but if we did score a goal, then all of a sudden, you see a different side to the opposition.
"Getting the sending off did not help. We were always chasing the game after that and, yes, it almost became inevitable."
Taylan Harris got the first goal of the game, and four minutes later, Josh Davison doubled the home side's advantage.
Appleton made three changes at the break as Taylor Perry, Tom Sang and George Lloyd all came into the action.
But after a brief resurgence, Will Boyle was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in the space of 60 seconds, and the home side went on to score two late goals through Omari Patrick, who was a threat all afternoon, and Kristian Dennis.
"They were poor goals obviously, they were poor errors," he said. "We have a two versus two situation in the wide area, and we get done by a little give and go.
"The second one, we were just wrestled off the ball, getting manhandled off the ball, not winning our duels. And, obviously, again, the shot's gone through.
“This next period (cup game on Tuesday) is quite a good thing, I think, because I can stand here and talk about what we didn't do well all day. But ultimately, you want the opportunity to put it right. And even me saying to the players, I can talk to the players and talk about our deficiencies and what we can do better and should do better.
"But I'd rather they show me. Talk's cheap. I want to see action.
“The fact that we have got a lot of Saturday and Tuesday games gives us the opportunity to try and put a performance to bed that wasn't clearly good enough today."
