Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst shocked by his side's performance levels
Boss Paul Hurst heaped praise on his relentless Shrewsbury side for their consistently high performance levels this season.
Town sit third in League One as their flying start continued at Oxford, where they secured a point through a 1-1 draw after dominating for large spells against the much-fancied hosts.
Despite not setting a club record fourth straight opening win, Hurst's side played some free-flowing football, dominating the big chances against their toughest opposition of the season to date.
Stefan Payne was again the hero for Town, netting from the bench for the second week running and the hosts had scored an undeserved opener.
An ultra impressed boss, while marvelling at his side's performance levels, even admitted he was a little bemused how his side – tipped by most neutrals for relegation – had maintained such standards.
"Who knows what the limit it? I don't know," admitted Hurst.
"It's extremely unusual, I have to say in my opinion, to have had the level of performance we've had in the five (league and cup) games.
"All of the time you tick one off and you're waiting for the next one thinking 'there's going to be a dip'.
"At the minute I don't think there has been. I'm hopeful but as always I'm realistic.
"The players, as well as doing well, must be enjoying it. They look like they're hungry. Right at the end we lost the ball and I've got Nolo (Nolan), Abs (Ogogo) and Junior (Brown) busting a gut to win the ball back.
"That's a great sign."
While the character that Town showed to secure an equaliser following a gut-wrenching 75th minute set-back came as no surprise to Hurst, the boss marked his side's dramatically improved style of play, which has been easy on the eye from minute one this term.
"To be honest I think we injected a bit of belief into the group pre or post-January that helped us grind out results," he added.
"But I don't think we realistically saw many performances (last season) where we had as much possession as we have or is free-flowing.
"That's why I'm really keen to see how we can progress with this group and see how far they can take it.
"I haven't checked but I'd still imagine we're one of the favourites to go down, let's just keep trying to prove people wrong."
