Ollie Westbury: Shrewsbury are heading down unless they figure this out

Having lost seven out of their first nine League One games, the morale among supporters is incredibly low.

Tuesday night’s defeat to Stockport was yet another bad evening at the office as Paul Hurst’s men lost 2-0.

The first half of the game followed a similar pattern to Shrews’ recent encounters. They were the better team and while they did not completely dominate their opponents, for the vast majority they were the team pushing for the opening goal of the fixture.

Leo Castledine was so close to giving Town that lead, but Fraser Horsfall was on hand to produce a magnificent block inside his own box.

Shrews were perhaps guilty of not being direct enough when they won the ball back. On a couple of occasions, they regained possession only to take too many touches, or go backwards before they went forward.

By that point, Stockport, a very well-drilled side from a defensive point of view, had got behind the ball.

Normally they wait until after the break to concede, but this time they let a sloppy goal in from a free-kick before the interval.

It was sent into the box, Josh Feeney headed it up in the air and rather than getting it away, Castledine headed it back into the danger area and Ethan Pye then finished for the visitors.

The second half was a totally different affair. Hurst’s side never looked like getting back into the game and if it was not for goalkeeper Toby Savin – they would have lost by a lot more.

He made a couple of brilliant saves to keep the score at 1-0 and it was not until the 86th minute that the Hatters managed to put the result beyond doubt.

Kyle Wooton this time getting the all-important goal to double Stockport’s advantage – again from a set piece. At this rate, Shrewsbury are heading to League Two. Performances are now irrelevant, Salop need to pick up points and ideally, they need to be wins.

Fixtures have been tough, but they have now had a big enough sample size for this not to just be bad luck.

They have conceded too many goals and they look ineffective when they go forward and that is a recipe for disaster.

Hurst says he will continue to work hard with the players on the training ground and they have already begun preparing for the trip to Bolton on Saturday.

After a tough start, Ian Evatt’s side seem to have picked up, they beat Northampton 4-0 on Tuesday evening and that is going to be another incredibly tough game for Town.

To make matters worse for Shrews they have another international break coming up and they will lose Aaron Pierre and Luca Hoole.

Pierre has not featured a great deal since the last international break but Hoole is the first-choice right-back, and while the club will say they have other options to fill that void. There is not an obvious choice. They could be without him for two games as Wales under-21s play just two days before Salop play against Exeter – a game which has been moved to a Thursday for Sky TV cameras.

There is very little positivity to report at the moment.