Under-fire John Askey wants resilience at Shrewsbury Town

The under pressure Town chief, who led training at Sundorne Castle yesterday amid speculation regarding his future, has yet to guide his team to an away victory in eight attempts.

Pressure is mounting from the fanbase at Montgomery Waters Meadow after Saturday’s poor 3-0 defeat at bottom four side Oxford left Salop just a point above the drop zone.

Askey was scathing of his players’ performances on a telling and possibly defining day at the Kassam Stadium and has previously stated there should be no difference in mentality whether home or away.

“It’s obviously disappointing because it shouldn’t make any difference whether you’re playing home or away,” said Askey, whose side have the worst away record in League One with three draws and five defeats from eight games.

“You should have a bit more resilience when you go away.

“At the start of the season we saw that.”

Town chiefs will decide whether Askey remains in place for the Kingsmeadow trip to try to halt the slump.

The Oxford reverse, which followed an encouraging win against Barnsley, saw Town fall 2-0 down inside 14 minutes. Both came courtesy of free headers, the first from a corner after three minutes. “Especially with set-pieces, you work on it over and over again, not every day but at least once a week on a Friday.” added Askey.

“There are certain ones who did put a shift in and did do well but there were too many who didn’t,” he said. “They’ve got to look at themselves and ask themselves ‘how much do I want a shirt?’

“Because one or two didn’t do enough.”

Town’s next game is a crunch clash at second-bottom AFC Wimbledon on Saturday, who have won just once at Kingsmeadow this season.