The blaming of the Shrews: ‘Lack of quality’ frustrates boss Paul Hurst

Boss Paul Hurst was unhappy with Shrewsbury’s performance at Bristol Rovers, even though the 0-0 draw means they have only lost one of their last six away games.

The visitors were indebted to several Marko Marosi saves for picking up a point from the Sky Bet League One contest at the Memorial Stadium, while Aiden O’Brien crashed a volley against the Rovers crossbar from 20 yards out.

Hurst says his side must play better if they are to get anything from their next fixture, at leaders Portsmouth.

“I wasn’t satisfied with the performance at all,” he said. “In the end neither team deserved to win. I thought it was two teams who could have done more for their club’s supporters.

“If I speak to Matt [Rovers boss, Taylor] I think we’ll both have a similar view: that the game was there to be won. But we didn’t do enough to grab that opportunity.

“That lack of quality today was quite frightening in all honesty. That’s a League One fixture but across most of the players, not all, that wasn’t League One, only by title, certainly not by quality.

“I don’t know if it’s a mindset or a mentality. It looks like we played yesterday, not Friday.

“We’ve looked after the players in terms of preparation but they’re either nowhere near fit enough or we go back to the mental side of the game. Digging deep and pushing yourself and getting through. I just want more from the group.”

In contrast, Taylor was happier with his side’s performance, with the Gas carving out several good opportunities to score, with the usually reliable Chris Martin suffering an off day.

Martin was unable to net when presented with two good opportunities in the first half, with just Marosi to beat, while substitute Jevani Brown hit the post in the final minutes of the match when he found time and space in the penalty area.

Taylor said: “We just lacked a goal. With some of the chances we created, we know we weren’t at our fluent best.

“I was pleased with the intent, obviously we wanted more in terms of executing certain moments in the game.

“It was a step in the right direction. There are so many things we can do a lot better but in terms of what we created and how we limited the opposition team to just one shot on goal of any note…I was so much more pleased than I have been previously.

“They’ve always got a threat about them but we just needed to make more of our attacking opportunities.

“Chrissy [Martin] won’t be anxious about scoring because he’s scored so many goals and he’s not one to be affected,” he added.