Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury are at a crossroads – where do we go next?

We always knew these last two games would be difficult for Town and you know you will come under pressure – in fact, I think it’s a massive positive we have taken a point from those two games when you look at how we played.

But what disappoints me the most is the approach to those games as Town went there trying not to get beaten.

It worked to a degree against Wycombe, who will be devastated they didn’t score with the amount of chances they had.

Shrewsbury defended heroically and Marosi in goal was brilliant, but is it good defending when you concede so many shots? I’m not sure.

Going to Plymouth and taking the same approach, there is only so long you can hold out for – so for me they’re lucky to get one point out of those two games.

The most disappointing thing is the creativity going forward and as a fan you just want to see your team having a go.

No-one can ever question the team for effort or how the manager sets them up defensively, but you just want a little bit more ambition.

I want to approach this part of my column more as a fan as I’ve been away from the football club for eight or nine months now and have no inside knowledge or contact with anyone, so I’m looking at this as a complete fan and it’s worrying.

I saw how good Steve Cotterill was when I was there. His detail, his vision for the club was excellent, and watching him first hand on the training ground he is an excellent coach. But there seems to be some crossed wires. The messages coming out of the club aren’t great and the comments after the game from the manager is what startled me the most.

It was a little bit defeatist the way he spoke about the reason we’re not scoring goals, saying it was because we haven’t got the money to buy a striker.

It just made me think ‘is this it for Shrewsbury then? Is this as far as we can go?’ It’s quite sad when you look at it like that, saying we’ve hit a ceiling and we can’t go above it because we can’t afford to.

My argument to that would be that we’ve had two really poor transfer windows and that is what I believe has cost us. The depth in the squad is nowhere near good enough.

Losing Nathanael Ogbeta was more damaging than what anyone thought. The left-hand side has been where all of the good play has come from.

The link-up play between Nurse, Leahy and Ogbeta was excellent and losing him took away a lot of the creativity, so it was a shame to see him go.

We have got players in the team who have scored goals – Dan Udoh is on 11 this year – but he’s had to play so much football because there’s no depth.

I’m not sure if you paid a striker £5,000 a week to come to Shrewsbury they would score a lot of goals in this team, because we don’t create enough chances.

It’s a bit of crossroads for the football club and it’s worrying, looking at it from a fans’ point of view.

I think the chairman has done the most amazing job over the last 25 years and I’d be very surprised if he isn’t maximising the budget as far as he can viably push it.

I hope this is not as far as Shrewsbury can go for the foreseeable future, because I have seen first hand what Steve Cotterill can do on the training pitch, that’s why I was surprised by his comments.

I think he can improve this squad and when they’ve played attacking football they have done really well.

For whatever reason at the moment, whether it’s confidence or not, they are not taking the game to teams.

I just hope they can get a result on Saturday because all of a sudden it makes the game on Saturday a lot bigger than it needed to be – the good feeling from December has changed alarmingly quickly and they need to get the fans back on side and give them something to cheer about.

I do think Shrewsbury will stay in the league. There’s a lot worse teams than them, but if Morecambe get a result it will get nerve-wracking.

I think Shrewsbury will be up for it, and the fans will be too, and they’ll get a positive result, but it’s a lot bigger than what it should ever have been.

It becomes an even bigger game if they lose it, but I don’t feel like it’s a six-pointer just yet.

Shrewsbury are way too good for Morecambe, but the table also doesn’t lie and they can go within touching distance with a win. That’s the reality.

After that good run in December, Shrewsbury have hit a brick wall, but they didn’t rejuvenate the squad in January and they only have themselves to blame now.

I honestly think they have far too much to be in trouble when it comes to the last few weeks of the season and I do expect them to beat Morecambe.

When Steve Cotterill needs a big performance from his players he has got it and I do expect that to happen on Saturday – so fingers crossed I’m right!