Analysis: Shrewsbury have time but they need to arrest their slide

At times in this campaign, there have been some real moments of promise. There have been performances where they have shown what this group of players is capable of. But the only consistent thing about this group is they are predictably inconsistent.

They have kept one clean sheet in their last 16 games. More than half of that precedes Paul Hurst’s time at the club, but so far it has not been a problem he has not been able to fix.

It was another two goals against Neil Critchley’s Tangerines – as they completed a comfortable league double over Shrewsbury.

Town’s woes deepened as they slipped to 20th in the League One table – while Cheltenham picked up a point on Saturday, which took them within four points of Town. And if they win their two games in hand, that will send Salop into the bottom four.

Saturday’s game was one of those which was decided by fine moments in both boxes.

Town conceded two completely avoidable and really poor goals. And at the other end, they lacked the aggression to carve out any real clear-cut chances.

There was no lack of effort from the Town players, but they barely laid a glove on their opponents in a performance similar to what we saw so often under Matt Taylor earlier in the season.

Blackpool had very few chances, but the few they did create they showed their extra quality.

It was a quiet first half with very few clear opportunities. The visitors dominated possession of the ball but did not do an awful lot with it, something that would have pleased Hurst.

Dan Udoh went closest for Salop. After the ball was worked out wide to Tom Bloxham, his cross went over Marvin Ekpiteta to find Udoh around six yards out, but he headed wide. That was perhaps the closest Town would come.

Blackpool have struggled on their travels this season and had won just four games away from home before this one.

Karamoko Dembele terrorised Shrewsbury at Bloomfield Road earlier this season as the Tangerines eased to a 4-0 success, and he was the man to give them the lead in Shropshire when he netted just before the half-time whistle. It was Blackpool’s first meaningful opportunity, which was defended very poorly by Hurst’s team.

A long kick from Dan Grimshaw was headed up rather than clear by Morgan Feeney, and Hayden Coulson was more alert than Tunmise Sobowale.

He got to the byline before pulling it back to Dembele, who fired into the corner beyond Harry Burgoyne.

Jordan Shipley went close after the break when his first-time effort went wide of Dan Grimshaw’s right post.

But Blackpool, who had lost to Leyton Orient in midweek, were determined to hang on to their lead, and they managed the game, which was devoid of quality from both sides, very well.

Hurst changed the system, moving from a 3-4-3 to a 4-2-3-1, introducing fresh legs with Aiden O’Brien, Tom Bayliss and Taylor Perry.

But it made little difference as Salop could not create a consistent spell of pressure.

They still had hopes of snatching an equaliser going into the final 10 minutes when Jason Sraha made a wonderful block to stop Coulson making it 2-0 to the visitors.

Blackpool still have a slim chance of making the play-offs, and they sealed their victory when Coulson did get his goal, heading home from close range with five minutes of normal time remaining.

A few weeks ago against Wigan, there was a late onslaught towards the Wigan goal, but there was no such thing at the Croud Meadow this time out as Blackpool easily negotiated the last couple of minutes of normal time as well as five additional minutes. The most frustrating thing is that we can see the Salop players are more than capable.

“When they turn up they can give any side a game on their day – the difficulty is you never know what you are going to get from them.

Aside from Reading beating Carlisle 3-1, the results were largely kind for Town with the sides above them – Charlton and Burton – only getting draws while Cambridge, rocked by their manager Neil Harris joining Millwall, continued their slide towards the relegation zone. They have lost their last four games.

The fortunate thing for Shrews is there is still a lot of time left in the season. But given the stage of the season, the position they find themselves in is one they deserve to be in.