Aaron Wilbraham: Shrewsbury Town can't give teams a leg up

Town paid for gifting Northampton a simple opener which proved to be the match-winner inside half hour at Sixfields on a Good Friday clash to forget for the visitors.

Steve Cotterill's side failed to recover from Ryan Watson's well-taken winner. They fashioned just one effort on target, Harry Chapman's strike from distance with 15 minutes left, on the way to back-to-back league defeats for the first time since October.

It was a big win for the Cobblers, who climbed one place to 19th and put three points between themselves and the bottom four.

Assistant boss Wilbraham said: "It was a scrappy game, we knew it'd be a tough place to come, similar to Burton, they are fighting for their lives.

"We didn't start the game the best and got involved in a scrappy game in the first half and found ourselves a goal down.

"When you're on the back foot against a team working hard and fighting for everything they can make it hard they've got something to hold on to.

"We don't need to give teams in that position a leg up, if we can help it. We know we're going to go into tough places but we've just got to stay in the game longer and see off what the other team is offering.

"Hopefully then we can take control of the second half, like we did, and we put a goal away instead.

"The lads are disappointed, obviously. They've come away with some great results away from home, we wanted to do it again, but sometimes it doesn't go your way."

Shrews improved after the break but were still unable to test former Salop goalkeeper Jonathan Mitchell. The visitors waited until 10 minutes from time to introduce Rekeil Pyke, while the trio of Sean Goss, Shaun Whalley and Dave Edwards were left until the 88th minute.

Wilbraham said of the decision to hold out: "Me and the manager were speaking (over the phone) and, because we were controlling the game, sometimes subs can disrupt it when you are doing it for the sake of it.

"I think we were in control, it wasn't really missing anything, we were controlling the game, fighting for everything, and they couldn't get out of their half.

"So you tend not to change it and we did the change in the end, thinking we could the formation a bit and get more people in the box but it wasn't to be."

Wilbraham confirmed, meanwhile, that striker Daniel Udoh missed the trip to Northamptonshire as his partner gone into labour with their first child on Thursday night/Friday morning.

Town did welcome Aaron Pierre and Donald Love back to fitness after two months and six weeks missing respectively. Both came through 90 minutes unscathed.

Skipper Ollie Norburn returned from suspension and Matija Sarkic was back from international duty in goal.

Cotterill's men, still in 17th, have an opportunity to bounce back swiftly in the second half of their Bank Holiday double-header at home to Plymouth on Easter Monday.

Norburn said: "It was not the result and, being honest, the performance we wanted. Personally, my performance was nowhere near the levels I like to set myself, but as a team as well.

"The good thing is we go again in a few days. We've had two defeats on the spin though, that hasn't happened since the gaffer's come in, everyone is hurting and down.

"Nothing against them but I don't think they are very good. We wasn't anywhere near what we're capable of and didn't reach the levels we've reached."