Aaron Wilbraham: Bad day at the office for Shrewsbury Town

The stand-in boss said it was the first time since he arrived at the club in early December that he had seen such a disappointing performance, as a late rally failed to prevent a 2-1 defeat to Joey Barton’s Rovers.

Two goals adrift Town had barely threatened before Daniel Udoh struck in injury time, and then his fellow substitute Dave Edwards was denied a last gasp equaliser after a dramatic finale.

“Since I came in on December 2nd the boys have been brilliant and this is the first time I have had this feeling,” said Wilbraham.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a feeling of being let down, but just that we weren’t quite at it, and that’s the first time I have felt that in those last three months.

“To me that is a testament to how well the boys have done.

“We showed some character and nearly got something at the end but that would have been a real smash and grab because it was a disappointing performance and a bad day at the office.

“Standing on the sidelines it just felt like it wasn’t us, but we don’t want any disappointment or sulking or kicking off with each other.

“The lads are of the same mindset, they are a great group and we are all on the same page.

“Games like this can happen sometimes, you can’t win every time you play, and the manager has just told them he doesn’t want to feel like this too often.

“As a group we don’t like losing, the manager doesn’t like losing, and it’s not something we want to do very often.

“We will look at the game and analyse it, then put it to bed and be ready to go again on Tuesday.”

The returning Matthew Pennington for the injured Donald Love was the only change made since Town launched their recent four-game unbeaten run, but Wilbraham said staff were keen to maintain the team’s rhythm and consistency by not making further changes for the trip to the Memorial Stadium.

“We put a lot into the game against MK Dons on Tuesday and they are a team who really make you run around,” he explained.

“But I don’t think we necessarily needed to change too much because week after week we have shown we can handle these game loads and, if anything, we have been better after the three-game weeks.

“If we have struggled it has been when we had the Covid break and the ten day break after the Ipswich game was cancelled.

“We have coped well game after game and the team had a bit of rhythm and consistency so we didn’t want to break that.

“Looking at the boys today we did look a little bit tired - we will reassess tomorrow and look at how everyone recovers from the game and if anyone had taken any knocks.

“The subs who came on did well so everyone is firing and we will see how things are on Monday and the manager will decide how he wants to play things.

“The lads have always bounced back well from defeats before and we will be looking to do the same again on Tuesday.”