Skipper urges everyone to stick together for last 10 games
Captain Liam Lawrence has appealed to Shrewsbury Town fans to "stick with us" insisting "it's all to play for" in the remaining 10 games of the League 2 season after Saturday's disappointing 1-0 defeat at promotion rivals Wycombe.A goal inside the opening 60 seconds from Sam Wood was enough to seal the win for the home side who moved above Shrewsbury into 2nd. Town are 3rd, 3 points above 4th place Southend who travel to leaders Burton on Wednesday night.
"I'm very, very disappointed," said Lawrence. "It was a massive game for us and we've conceded after 48 seconds. That's not good enough. The manager told us at half time what he thought, some stern words were said and there have been after the game too. I've just spoken to the lads myself, I've said my bit and it's not good enough."
Town's recent form is a concern. It's just 1 win in 5, and Shrewsbury have lost 3 games in that sequence.
"It's a bad time to hit a run like that," admitted the former Republic of Ireland international. "I've said to the lads there are no excuses. We've got ourselves in a great position to get out of this league and we have to find a way to do it. We need to go 10 unbeaten now until the end of the season. We do that and we'll go up.
"I thought in the last half hour we had a go at them and created a few half chances but you can't concede after 48 seconds. It came from a cross, again, and we gave ourselves a massive mountain to climb. We never climbed it."
Town travel to inconsistent Morecambe on Tuesday looking to return to form, before a home game against Oxford United next Saturday.
"Everyone is going to look at the league," said Lawrence. "All we need to do is concentrate on the next battle in front of us and that comes on Tuesday. We need to go there and get something. Hopefully next Saturday at home we get something too. We're not looking behind us, it's all about the next game and getting 3 points."
The big positive of the day was Lawrence's return to the team after the midfielder picked up a knee injury at Tranmere last month. He returned to action at Adams Park as a Town substitute, brought on by manager Micky Mellon as part of a triple change. But there was still no return for another injured player - striker Andy Mangan - who was at Wycombe to watch his teammates but still not fit enough to be involved.
"I can still feel a tiny bit in my knee where I got the whack a few weeks ago," said Lawrence. "When I got out there with the adrenaline pumping, I didn't feel it. I'm desperate to start matches but the gaffer pulled the reigns in on Friday and rightly so. I got half an hour, got my strength back and hopefully I'll be fine for Tuesday."
"I spend a lot of time with Mangs, he's a good friend of mine. It's good to have him back. He's been training really hard and he's nearly ready. He wanted to be on the bench against Wycombe but you have to be careful with knee injuries. He'll be ready for Tuesday or Saturday."
Despite the disappointment of defeat against one of Shrewsbury's promotion rivals, Lawrence is remaining upbeat and says Town are still in a great position.
"I ran straight over to the fans who made the effort to come," he said. "Most were clapping, a few others were doing a bit of pointing and putting their points across. Rightly so too, they've paid money to watch us and we didn't perform how we wanted. We were out battled at times and that's not good enough. I would ask them to stick with us. Hopefully there will still be something to cheer about at the end of the season. We're still in a magnificent place, 3 points ahead of 4th and it's all to play for."