Danny's thoughts after the home game with Northampton Town
Caretaker boss Danny Coyne admitted that Town weren’t good enough against Northampton on Saturday, and described the club’s situation as like being ‘kicked and stamped on’.
His side are now 10 games without a win since their win at Oldham in early September, and the 4-2 defeat at Greenhous Meadow saw the same frailties exposed.
The game is likely to be Coyne’s final game in charge, as Town get set to appoint a new manager within the next week, and the boss admits can he understands the low morale in the dressing room.
“It’s a lonely place to be, it’s like you’re down there and somebody keeps kicking you and stamping on you. It’s not a nice feeling.
“You feel sorry for yourself and you lose your focus of what we’re trying to do.
“I feel for the lads because I’ve been in the situation in a dressing room where it’s gone, like it is at the minute.”
The fans voiced their frustration both during and after the game, but Coyne is sure that Shrewsbury have to be patient in their approach to appointing a new boss.
“We can’t just rush in and get somebody that isn’t right, because we want to get something in place, long term, that is going to be sustainable and that’s what everybody wants at the end of the day.”
Coyne accepts that the responsibility of the last few games falls on him, and that he wouldn’t have accepted the role if he didn’t think he could make a positive impact.
He said: “I’m responsible for what goes on out there, but I’ve got big shoulders so if I couldn’t have taken what was coming, I wouldn’t have done it.
“I get on with it, I take responsibility, and it’s me that’s up there.”
Town have only kept one clean sheet all season but Coyne believes that his side are lacking at both ends of the pitch.
“We’ve given too many chances early on from wide areas, the crosses kept coming in, and then we get done with the set play.
Coyne continued: “We all know it wasn’t good enough, we have to do better, we’ve got to defend better, and at the other end we’ve got to put it in the back of the net more regularly from free play.
“We are creating a couple of chances even though we’re not working their goalkeeper as much as we’d want.”
Town also have injury problems mounting up, captain Adam El-Abd and Jack Grimmer were absent from the squad whilst Ian Black and Oliver Lancashire were both replaced with knocks in the first half.
Coyne expressed that he is positive about the players having a free week to recover.
“Hopefully it can give the chance to recover from a couple of injuries that we have got, with Jack Grimmer and Adam El-Abd. We’ll have to assess them on Monday, have a good week training, and see what happens and go from there.”