Paul Hurst: Shrewsbury Town to go back to basics

Port Vale's 1-0 win over Walsall last night means only a freak set of results – including a 10-goal swing to Vale – would send Town down on the final day.

Hurst admitted to trying to take pressure off his players behind the scenes and leave training as uncomplicated as he could in recent weeks – and believes the unbeaten run of four games has been the reward.

His side had gone more than a month – and six games – heading into April without a victory and in a bid to halt the slide the Greenhous Meadow chief was willing to make training as enjoyable as possible.

"Over the last six games or so, we've really tried to take as much pressure off the players as possible," said Hurst. "We stopped the video analysis, we stopped doing work on set plays. They were still there (for them to look at), but it stopped the players sitting there thinking about it.

"We tried to keep it as enjoyable as possible, not too much shape work and it looks like it's paid dividend. In terms of results, it's worked.

"If it hadn't have worked, people would be saying 'you should be doing this' or 'you should be on the training ground for hours' or 'you should be in morning, afternoon and night'. We haven't done that, we've tried to keep it quite relaxed."

The Town boss added: "The longer we've been here, the more they understand that they'll get pulled up if they're not working.

"The day's training before Rochdale they were absolutely flying, the spirit was there and someone commented who hadn't been around saying 'that didn't look like a squad of players in a relegation battle'."

Hurst admitted that results had left him, at times, wondering if survival in his debut League One role as manager was meant to be.

"Of course your belief waivers," he said. "At times you're thinking 'is it meant to be?' Daft as it is, I do believe that everything happens for a reason and it did seem like that reason wasn't going to be positive for us, at times."