Shropshire Star

David Longwell: Lack of confidence not an issue for Shrewsbury

First-team coach David Longwell insists a lack of confidence is not an issue for Shrewsbury Town players after a second successive underwhelming Saturday performance.

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Town went down 2-0 at home to deserved winners Fleetwood, meaning they have taken just a point from three games against Bristol Rovers, AFC Wimbledon and Fleetwood in seven days.

Shrewsbury were comfortably second-best at the Gas last weekend and laboured again against the Cod Army at Montgomery Waters Meadow, where Wes Burns and Kyle Vassell struck either side of the break.

Town, with Steve Cotterill continuing to lead the troops from hospital in Bristol, remain 17th in League One despite only their second run of three games without a win since the manager's appointment. The gap to the bottom four has been cut, but remains a healthy eight points, while Salop still boast games in hand on almost all of their rivals.

Asked if Town's confidence had been checked by recent results, Longwell said: "I don't think it's confidence, to be honest with you, you don't have a divine right to win games.

"In the Bristol game they were just at it more and we've got to get back to what we're good at.

"The players have been excellent, I can't fault them, over the course of it. It's just that today and last Saturday we weren't at the levels of before.

"Yes it's difficult with players coming in and out with injuries but that's going to happen, you've just got to deal with it.

"We did OK (against AFC Wimbledon) during the week but the level of performance where we've been before, we've just go to get back to that.

"I don't think it's anything to do with confidence, we lose a poor goal before half-time and are then chasing the game. The players always try to get back into it but we've got to get back to what we're doing previously to get results."

Shrewsbury are missing influential figures captain Ollie Norburn and defender Aaron Pierre and, for the second Saturday running, paid the price for conceding on the stroke of half-time.

Both goals were avoidable, the first from a loose pass conceded by Ro-Shaun Williams, with Fleetwood players afforded far too much room to break forward and threaten the Shrews' backline.

Longwell, promoted to first-team coach under Cotterill and alongside Aaron Wilbraham is leading Town on a day-to-day basis, surmised: "We're really disappointed as you can probably imagine, players, staff, manager, everybody, because it's not the result or performance we wanted today.

"Unfortunately it's happened before, to lose a goal in the 45th minute just gives you a mountain to climb and from 0-0 it just changed the dynamic of the game.

"The fact they scored just before half-time, and it was a poor goal for us to concede, makes it difficult and means we're trying to chase it in the second half and unfortunately we couldn't get back in the game.

"If you look at the first half there's not much in the game, there's not many chances on either side. They just capitalised on an mistake.

"In the second half the manager decided to go 4-3-3 to get back in the game and tried to make positive changes to get something out of it.

"Chasing it at 1-0 you're always likely to get one back but unfortunately it didn't fall for us, we probably didn't create enough to get the goal, and goals change games.

"We tried with the players from the bench but didn't create enough."

Longwell did reveal that skipper Norburn is facing just a couple of weeks out with the injury that he picked up against Wimbledon in midweek as Shrewsbury received scan results on Friday.

Town are being cautious with goalkeeper Matija Sarkic, who had a tight quad muscle meaning the hosts attempted to play out more from the back, as opposed to kicking long, on a couple of occasions.

The coach added: "When he came off you're thinking it is maybe more serious but he will be back in the next couple of weeks. We can't put an exact date on it, but Norbs was here today in the dressing room to try to drive the team and get back to getting results.

"The good thing is we play again Tuesday, the players need to show a response for the manager and themselves, we've got to get to the same levels again.

"We are being a wee bit precautious with it (Sarkic), he had a little strain but it's nothing serious. I know people saw it the other night, we're trying to build out more so he's not kicking it as much but he's OK."