Graham Turner's thoughts after the 0-0 draw with Bury
By Matt Johnson
Town gaffer Graham Turner bemoaned the growing “anxiety” in his team after they were held to a scoreless draw at the Greenhous Meadow against a Bury side that haven’t won in 12.
The Shrews failed to register a shot on goal during the entire first-half and didn’t threaten until late on when Dave McAllister first hit the bar and then saw a low shot saved well by the Shakers keeper.
“It was never going to be easy against them,” said Turner. “I think we should’ve passed the ball a little bit better and progressively - I think we were too cautious at times.
“Bury set up with a very difficult formation to play against. We had a little flurry just after the substitutions and with a bit of luck, David’s effort that hit the bar might have gone in, but generally it was just a battle out there.
“The performance was full of anxiety. We have better players than we’ve shown today, but we have just had anxiety creeping into the team recently, particularly at home, and that is the disappointment.”
Despite the frustration, Turner was happy to point out the positives after another clean sheet and immediate bouncebackability after the disappointment at Swindon last weekend.
“If you can’t win the game, don’t lose. That takes it to two defeats in 13 matches, four clean sheets in the last six. So there are some positives there and that’s what you have to emphasise, especially with the situation we’re in.
“It’s no good jumping down the players’ throats. We know there are problems, but with where we are in the league, it’s more important to keep confidence as high as we can without getting on players’ backs.”
With just five days remaining of the transfer window, Turner stressed that he is actively looking to bring in reinforcements. Admitting to missing out on a key target yesterday, he insisted that he will not be tempted to panic buy.
“I was close as I could be [to making a signing] yesterday afternoon, but in the end the player decided that he didn’t want to come out on loan after we had agreed with the club and it all looked set up.
“You get these near misses, you get the disappointments, you get the frustrations of what we’ve wanted to do. We’ve tried to be selective and that will continue. We’ve got till Thursday and then seven days after that the emergency loan window opens, but it’s obvious we need strengthening. We’ve got a decent squad and the criteria is that anybody who comes in has got to improve the team – it’s as simple as that.”