Paul Hurst gives honest Shrewsbury opinion after Salop loss

There were some positive signs on show for Hurst's team at the John Smith's Stadium – despite Town losing their third successive game of the campaign

Callum Marshall gave the home side the lead in the 20th minute of the clash, while Town had their own chances as Tommi O'Reilly hit the bar and John Marquis was denied by Lee Nicholls.

And Hurst says the game could have gone a different way on another afternoon.

"I am never happy losing a game of football, but I thought we performed well," he said after the 1-0 defeat.

"There was not much in the game. Huddersfield looked like they had kind of run out of ideas in general, but admittedly, they had got the all-important goal and were in front.

"A lot of what I watched in terms of us putting a gameplan together nothing surprised us.

"I think we negated a lot of what they wanted to do and have done very well in games to date so I am frustrated to lose by that single goal and to hit the crossbar and have another really good chance with the keeper making an excellent save with his studs to deny John Marquis.

"They have had a couple of attacks, Toby has made one really good save first half and one in the second half that he should not have had to make because he was offside.

"But we have not been absolutely peppered. We have had quite a bit of the ball but in areas where maybe they are happy, but we were also happy at the same time.

"The lads stuck to what we asked of them very well we just did not quite get our rewards.

"I am not going to go down and feel sorry for ourselves. I have just said that to the players. That will not get us anywhere.

"I think we could have quite easily come away with a draw and on another day we could have nicked it."

And the boss believes they can take an awful lot from their trip to Yorkshire with another game coming up in midweek in the Carabao Cup.

He continued: "They have got to take some confidence from that game because we are playing against a team that is fighting for automatic promotion or at the top end of the league.

"I have got to be careful in terms of my messaging, and I have said this to the players, we are not going into a dressing room to celebrate a narrow defeat.

"We want to try and take something from games and that was the idea albeit from a different approach, in terms of getting behind the ball initially."

Meanwhile, the Town boss confirmed Shrewsbury are hopeful of completing the signing of Chelsea youngster Leo Castledine.

"What I would say is we like the player so hopefully we can do something on that," he said.

"He is a player we do like a lot and can play different positions and has been captain of the 21s.

"He is an England youth international and he certainly knows Josh Feeney from his England days as well.

"He is one that we have been working on, and hopefully we can get some positive news on that in the coming days."