Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury Town have neglected the basics

It wasn't a nice moment for me personally as a Shrewsbury fan. I was covering Rotherham vs Mansfield and it flashed up on the screen that Shrewsbury had been relegated just before we went live on Sky Sports. 

But it was expected and everyone knew it was coming. Unfortunately, we haven't seen the reaction we probably would've wanted off the back of that. 

You never quite know how the team is going to react. Are they going to have a little bit more freedom with the way that they play? Are they going to play with more anger? 

Or are they going to go the other way, and start thinking about next year and playing in protection mode? Unfortunately from what I've seen across those games, in particular against Northampton, it does feel like the players have gone into self preservation mode in general. 

There are players out there who aren't like that, but as a whole, it was pretty poor against Northampton. The goals were desperately poor. When you're in a position like Shrewsbury have been, the basics are something that you need to get right and they haven't. 

The first goal, the amount of time they have to put the cross in was scary and the marking at the back post is dreadful. The second goal was comical. A miscommunication between Jamal Blackman and Aaron Pierre, who ironically have been Shrewsbury's best players during the back end of the season. 

It was far too easy to put a cross in again for their third goal, you have to be able to get out to the ball and make it difficult. In League One and League Two, crosses into the box are where most of the goals come from, and you have to try and stop it at source. 

The fourth goal was the one which will be hardest for Michael Appleton to see. The way that Northampton strolled through the defence when they had numerous opportunities to put in a tackle. 

They didn't and they obviously ended up going 4-0 down before we got our late consolation. In both boxes in general, we're really lacking some conviction with our final actions.  

Whether it's defending in the box, being really brave to win that first contact and if that doesn't happen then winning the second contact. All these basics that have been spoken about for decades and decades, they just don't go away, so you have to do them. 

I know Appleton wants to develop the style of play but he'll know that his team need to defend better. He showcased that in his interview where he was very angry. 

Appleton's interview was really good after the game. He said it made his skin crawl with the soft nature of Shrewsbury at the moment and I think the fans can sympathize with that. 

He has only been here a few games but he is seeing the job at hand. I really like him as a manager, I like the way he speaks in the press, I like his footballing philosophy and personally I really hope he is in the dugout for next season. 

They play more exciting football with him there and with a good transfer window where he can get his type of players in and have a good pre-season. 

The way he plays, it's really important you have a pre-season because there's a lot of information you have to take on. The good point from the day was that it was great to see Isaac England and Jack Loughran getting their Football League debuts.