Simpson seethes at 'rubbish' Town

Town's slump in form over the last two months continued on Saturday as they crashed to a 4-0 defeat at League Two leaders Rochdale.

It means Shrewsbury have managed just seven points from their last eight League matches, and have failed to score in any of their last three outings.

And it produced an angry response from Simpson as his side failed to take advantage of a raft of postponements elsewhere in League Two to push themselves further up the table.

"It was an absolute rubbish performance and I feel severely let down by a group of players who we have put trust in," said the Town boss.

"It was a well below par performance and we can't get any worse than we have shown.

"They have let me down, they have let the supporters who travelled down and that's not something I normally say because normally the workrate is there.

"The players out there are more than capable of producing better performances than that.

"I'm actually sick of making excuses for them.

"You trust in people and I wonder whether we can trust them or not.

"There has to be some serious thinking and looking into it going on."

Simpson admitted he could have had no complaints had the margin of defeat been greater.

"We were outplayed by a good side - but we were torn apart by them and that is a massive let-down," he added.

"We came up against a side that has worked harder than us and that's about desire.

"I said before the game, this should be the easiest team talk for any manager or coach, coming up against the top of the table.

"That (desire) is a personal thing. It's something every single footballer should have.

"If you don't have it, you shouldn't be in it and maybe if you don't have it you won't be in it for very long.

"It would be an insult to our supporters if we tried to be positive about anything from Saturday."

l Former Town boss Gary Peters was among the crowd at Spotland on Saturday, the first Shrewsbury game he has watched since leaving the club.