John Askey: Shrewsbury Town performance 'wasn't good enough'
Dejected boss John Askey was at a loss to explain Shrewsbury's dismal start in defeat at Oxford United and questioned the direction of his players' careers.
Town shipped two soft goals in 14 minutes at The Kassam Stadium to hand the hosts an easy route to victory.
The visitors never got back into the game and the result was compounded with a third four minutes from time to implement a heaviest result of the season on Town.
Under-fire Askey was at a loss to his side's defending for the goals and questioned the desire of his inconsistent players.
He said: "It wasn't good enough and players have got to look at why that is. You've got to reproduce it week in, week out.
"Players who are going to have long careers, that's what you give, but there's quite a few where you don't know what you're going to get."
Askey used the same XI that shone in a midweek victory over the fancied Barnsley.
But inconsistent Town never got going in a game against fellow strugglers, albeit Oxford extended their unbeaten run to five games.
On the start, he added: "I don't think you can explain the performance.
"We came out of the back of a good performance having worked out socks off and within 10 minutes we handed the game to Oxford.
"I was very disappointed to concede the first goal. Just allowing the man to run with no contact in the box is poor.
"And again allowing the cross for a free header. We'd not started.
"Once we did start there was not a great deal in the game but it was too late by then."
