Sam Clucas opens up on difficult start to campaign for Shrewsbury Town

Sam Clucas admits there was a "lot of negativity" at Shrewsbury Town and a lack of confidence following a difficult start to the campaign.

Salop remain  precariously placed near the foot of the League Two table after their trip to Salford City on Sunday was postponed due to a frozen pitch. 

Clucas, who has started every one of Shrewsbury’s league matches since joining the club in May, says morale suffered during the opening months of the season.

The 35-year-old said: "The poor start we had made it difficult. We don't seem to be climbing as high as we'd want to be. 

"At the start of the season, we probably had a different way of trying to play. There were a lot of new players trying to bed in to a team. 

"When you start losing a couple of games, even though we had a really good pre-season, it just snowballs. Winning games just breeds winning games.

"Even when you don't play well, if you've been winning games, you somehow win a game out of nowhere. It's the same when the shoe's on the other foot.

"I think that just snowballs. A lack of confidence, everything that was going on around the club, and rightly so, a lot of negativity from last year. 

"So when you're losing games, as well at the start of the season, that doesn't help and the whole situation, but hopefully we're getting past that.

"We've seen all of the teams now in the league and we know we can compete with the teams at the very top, so that has got to give us confidence.”

Clucas has mostly occupied the left -wing-back position for Shrewsbury so far this season - a role he admits is not his most favoured. 

"If I could choose, I wouldn't be playing now, but it's a position that the manager wants me to play," he admitted. 

"I've enjoyed playing there and if I'm helping the team, which I seem to be doing with getting assists and chipping him a few goals in, I'll quite happily play there. 

"I'm very versatile, I can play in numerous positions. It's probably helped me play a lot more games than I probably would have if I was just playing one position, so I can't complain on that front. 

"If the manager wants me to play there and I'm doing well and we're picking up points and I'm chipping in then, I'm more than happy to do that."