Martin Wild speaks to Marc Pugh after the Lincoln City defeat.

Marc Pugh summed up the mood perfectly at a dejected Oteley Road as the team's poor sequence of results continued with a 2-1 home defeat to relegation-threatened Lincoln City. A late equaliser from skipper Ben Davies looked to have rescued at least a point for the Shrews but Louis Dodds popped up with five minutes left to grab his and the visitors second to gain some revenge for the 4-0 hammering on the opening day.

"It was really frustrating; we just couldn't get our game going. We put them under a little bit of pressure second half but they kept slowing the game down and there were loads of injuries and we just didn't get going today.

"We didn't put them under enough pressure. We needed to get the ball down and play a bit more. We didn't keep the ball well enough and needed to squeeze them up and pin them in their own half and start playing our football."

Following two really encouraging away performances at Grimsby & Bradford it was put to the young winger that those performances needed to be replicated on home soil to give the supporters more hope for the rest of the season.

"There's always pressure but every player should thrive on it. It's up to us to put things right, put good performances in. We need to pick ourselves up from here and hopefully improve those performances and put some wins on the board.

"I can't explain why it took so long to get going today. We should be ready to go right from the off. It's up to us to attack them - this is our stage and we should have been raring to go. We should be scoring goals and creating chances. We did create the chances to be fair but we need to find a killer instinct in front of goal to kill teams off."

Town's hopes of any kind of momentum was dealt an immediate blow at the start of the second period, when striker Dave Hibbert was left with concussion after a heavy challenge and forced off, his place taken by new signing James Constable.

"It affected us definitely. Hibbo's struggling and I hope he's alright. He's shown his worth to the team bagging eleven goals in his first season with the club and he's only a young lad, he can only get better. We've brought a couple of new lads in this week with James (Constable) and Bevvo (Scott Bevan) and I think they will do well for the club.

There would have been few present amongst the 4,892 inside Oteley Road this afternoon that would argue Pat Miller's officiating skills left a lot to be desired. Put simply, the man in the middle had a stinker!

"I thought the referee's performance today was really bad right from the start for both teams really. It wouldn't be right to blame him entirely for the defeat. We can't put a poor performance down to him; it's up to us to put in a performance to win the game. Ref's will make bad decisions but it's not his fault that we couldn't keep the ball out of the back of the net twice.

"I can't really comment on his decision to award them the free-kick which resulted in their first goal 'cos I didn't have a good view of it. But most of the lads were saying it shouldn't have been a free-kick and that it was really harsh. Not too many people are happy with it but these things happen in football. You've just got to take it on the chin and move on."

Taking the lead led to the Imps mounting a rearguard action that regularly saw 10-men behind the ball frustrating Town's players still further.

"I think we need to work on getting the ball wider a bit more. Sometimes we tend to go too central and they were good at breaking the play up. They had two strong centre-halves who won all the headers and it frustrates you. But we just need to pick up from here and get some confidence back in the side hopefully starting next week at Brentford."

The next four teams to come to Shrewsbury are Milton Keynes, Hereford, Rotherham & Darlington. Given our abject head-to-head results against teams fighting it out for promotion, how difficult would it be to gain that confidence though?

"Well, it's certainly something that we need to address. If we want to sneak into the promotion picture we have to start doing well against those teams. We've got a young squad here, and if we want to push on whether it's this season or next season, if we're to get into the play-offs or automatic promotion positions we have to start beating teams like that."

With only four points gained from the last 24 on offer, surely we had left ourselves with too much to do and that the season would have to be one of consolidation.

"I wouldn't so much say that. All we need is to get three or four wins together and we're right back in there. There's sixteen games left so there's still a lot of points on offer. The performances are alright but at this moment in time results are far more important.

"In the last four games we could easily have had twelve points instead of the four we've got. We've defended quite well at times. But like at Bradford when we've had two unlucky deflections it's cost us and that's been the story of the second half of our season really. At Lincoln we played really well and won four-nil and we got a few one-nil's as well so that's what we need to get back to.

"The potential is here. All the lads in training, the spirit's there, the passing's great and we need to take it onto the field with us. If there's confidence and belief this young team can do really well. The club can go on from here and everyone is raring to go."

Town's number seven is getting a prolonged run in the side and doesn't really mind which position he's asked to play in as long as he gets a shirt.

"It's hard to say which position I prefer. It depends on the opposition really. If we're at home and knocking the ball into feet I like playing up front. But when I'm on the wing I just love running at defenders and that suits my game better I think. Hopefully I can carry on this run in the team and do well."

Once the skipper had equalised with a well executed free-kick with still quarter of an hour remaining, at 1-1 there only looked one side capable of winning the game. That side lost.

"Even when they scored Kelvin had a great chance to level again. We're having some poor luck just now but hopefully that will soon change."

As frustrations continue to mount amongst players, staff and supporters alike, let us all hope that it comes sooner rather than later.