Review of the season so far: How have Shrewsbury Town got to this point?

They opened the campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Stevenage, and their most recent game was a defeat with the same scoreline on the road at Leyton Orient. 

In the middle of that, there have been hammerings, close losses, derby failures, poor refereeing decisions, managerial sackings and the odd good result thrown in there for good measure. 

The defeat at Orient over a week ago saw Shrewsbury go past the halfway point of the campaign, and they now have 22 matches to get the points they need to get themselves out of this tricky position. 

Salop have found themselves in the bottom four for the vast majority of this season, and that is largely down to their terrible defensive record. 

When Paul Hurst was dismissed on November 3 - after the 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Salford, they had lost 11 of their opening 15 games and conceded 27 times - at almost two goals per game. 

Wins against Crawley and Leyton Orient were rare moments of joy, but Shrewsbury hit the self-destruct button too many times in that opening few months of the season. 

Games that stick out in the memory would be the 2-1 defeat at Mansfield where Salop were good value for their lead at the break - only for them to give away a terrible penalty within moments of the re-start handing the initiative to their opponents.