Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst highlights key managerial quality
Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst has expressed the importance of being honest as the head coach of a football team.
The Town boss gave a frank and robust assessment of Salop’s 3-0 defeat at Lincoln on Tuesday night in a game where they did not turn up at Sincil Bank, losing 3-0 to an in-form side.
Hurst described the performance against the Imps as ‘not acceptable’ and questioned his player’s desire when speaking after the match.
And when asked about his comments by the Shropshire Star, Hurst says it is so important to be honest in his profession.
“I pride myself on being honest,” the head coach said. “That is one of the first things if you say to a player ‘What do you want from a manager?’ They will say it is honesty.
“Sometimes they can take that and sometimes it becomes an issue, but I will always give an honest viewpoint and give them reasons for my thoughts.
“Hopefully, that is then deemed acceptable and then we have a good relationship.
“I don’t think any player in that dressing room was pretending we played well the other day – I am pretty certain of that. Let’s accept that and take it on the chin but the most important thing is we cannot change that – but we can look to change our attitude and our work-rate to influence what happens today.”
And Hurst revealed he warned his players that he would not take it easy on them during his post-match press duties.
“I kind of said to the players that I was not going to hold back,” he added. “And not just from a first time of disappointment, it is not me throwing toys out of the pram.
“We had lost against Cambridge, and we had lost to Wigan but I could, not accept it easily, but understand we were still well in the game and that we were pushing for an equaliser.
“In a lot of times, with the way that game was played out, we would have got something from it.
“Tuesday night, we were never going to get anything with the level of performance, and maybe I am forgetting Lincoln’s part in it because they spoke about how well they played – and fair play they did.
“Their manager is going to look at them, and I am going to look at us.”
