Shrewsbury Town analysis: Saturday was ugly in so many ways

It is a sports journalist's job to find the words to describe fixtures, but it's becoming increasingly more difficult with Salop - who seem to play in the same game over and over. 

After the loss against Exeter Gareth Ainsworth promised a response from his team, but they lost for the sixth time in their last seven third-tier matches on Saturday with a 2-0 defeat to Burton Albion. They have not won since they beat Rotherham at the start of February. 

Salop's supporters are distraught by the position their team finds themselves in, and they made their feelings known when the second goal went in with vociferous scenes and chants directed to the powers that be at the club.

This season is now over, and after an extended stay in League One, there is too much to do for Salop to turn this around. They are 14 points from safety, and there are only 27 left available to play for.

They must make plans for the fourth tier for the rest of the campaign. Until now, Gareth Ainsworth has refused to accept his team’s fate, but even he is now coming around to it. After Exeter the previous week he was annoyed by his team’s display, but on Saturday, he seemed deflated. 

Shrewsbury have lost a staggering 23 matches this season, which is a phenomenal amount. 

But their record against those around them in the league is a real headscratcher. 

They just fail to turn up when the pressure is on. When they take on the likes of Wrexham and Birmingham, when nobody expects them to win, they have managed to produce a couple of good performances and get a couple of freak results.

But when they really need to produce a performance, too often, they have just buckled under the pressure of the relegation battle. Aside from the 5-3 win at Crawley, they have not beaten anyone 16th or below in the table this season - a staggering statistic. 

Ainsworth himself says part of that problem is while they have some experienced players, not many of them have been in a relegation battle before. 

What is not helping their case is their inability to defend set pieces as they keep harming their own chances at the moment.

They did it twice in Devon, another 2-0 defeat against Exeter and then they repeated it this weekend as they did it against Gary Bowyer's Burton Albion side. 

Rumarn Burrell and Terence Vancooten were the beneficiaries this time as their second-half goals guided the Brewers to victory. 

The game’s first real chance came in the 27th minute when Jordan Shipley played a great ball to David Wheeler. He kept it alive, and as it came to Dominic Gape on the edge of the box, his shot was deflected over the bar. 

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson has been in great form for the Brewers. He had scored four goals in his nine League One appearances, but he was forced off on the half-hour mark after picking up an injury. He was replaced by Mason Bennett. 

The visitors went close through Burrell when his flick, from a Kyran Lofthouse cross, went over the bar. 

By far and away the clearest opportunity of the first 45 minutes went the way of Bowyer’s side. Burrell was the provider this time as he crossed the ball to Bennett inside the six-yard box, in the centre of the goal, but somehow, when it seemed harder to miss than to score, he put it over the bar - it will be a contender for miss of the season.

Shipley fired just over on the resumption after good play from Wheeler to get a cross in. 

But once more Bennett found himself in the spotlight when he missed his second sitter of the afternoon. Burrell put it on a plate for him again, from the opposite side this time, and he put it over the bar. 

Burrell and Vancooten then had the final say and inflicted more misery on Town fans. 

The sad thing is it feels as if Salop have now got nine dead rubbers left to play, and then finally, they can put this sorry season to bed. 

The scenes in the final stages of the game and at full-time, which saw the Salop fans vent their anger, were ugly and very similar to what we saw at Salford earlier in the campaign when Town were knocked out of the FA Cup. Paul Hurst lost his job the next day. 

Each time you think the season could not get any worse, somehow it does, and would you believe it, their next clash, which is in two weeks because of the international break, is against league leaders Birmingham City - they have lost three games all season. 

Shrewsbury will have some serious soul-searching to do throughout the international break, and let's keep our fingers crossed they can give supporters at least something to smile about in the remaining weeks of the season.