Shrewsbury's Shaun Whalley told to continue terrorising defences

The flying winger created Mat Sadler's equaliser against the Cobblers and played a key part in the 55th-minute dismissal of left-back David Buchanan.

Whalley then became the victim of resounding jeers from the home crowd after Buchanan collected two yellow cards within five minutes but continued to terrorise the Northampton back line.

The Greenhous Meadow boss, who was aware of Whalley's talent from his time managing non-league Grimsby, said: "I'm not going to get too upset about what they think of him.

"In a lot of situations like that the (opposition) crowd get on at players causing problems and he certainly did that. For me you could see the sending off coming, I was surprised that (Buchanan) wasn't withdrawn sooner and Shaun was certainly a good outlet for us.

"He was obviously getting some stick but I didn't hear them shouting about their two centre-forwards that kept falling over who are a lot bigger than Shaun yet still found the floor quite regularly."

Whalley has the highest number of assists for Town this season, chalking up his fifth at Sixfields on Monday.

But, despite the superb free-kick that teed up Sadler, critics have said that the former Luton winger is often wasteful with his delivery.

Hurst believes Town's problem with the final ball doesn't just rest with his right-midfielder.

"It is just the final ball but I think that's everybody though," he added.