Defiant boss Paul Simpson insists he remains as determined as ever to bring success to Shrewsbury Town as he battles to put the club’s ailing season back on track.
Simpson, who recently clocked up two years as Town manager, admits the abuse thrown his way by sections of the home fans during last weekend’s dismal 2-0home defeat against Darlington hurt.
But he is fully committed to bringing an end to Town’s four-match losing run, in which they have failed to score, as he prepares his squad for their season defining Easter weekend double header.
Shrewsbury, now five points adrift of the play-off places with eight games to go, head to relegation-threatened Torquay United on Saturday before taking on promotion-chasing Notts County at the Prostar on Monday (both 3pm).
Simpson accepts they are two pivotal games and has vowed to walk tall despite the criticism which has come his way.
“I try not to let it affect what I’m doing in my job,” said Simpson. “I don’t like it and it’s a horrible situation to have to stand through.
“There isn’t any other job anywhere in the world where people will turn up and throw the abuse that I got. How anybody expects to get a positive response from players when they’re doing that . . . if you were to stand over a surgeon while he was performing an operation and hurl the abuse at him, I don’t think anybody would expect him to perform properly.
“I’ll come in with a smile on my face to get the players going, to get them ready, but believe me it hurts like you would never know to be on the receiving end of it. But I’m as determined now as I was before last Saturday that I want to be successful for this club and that won’t change.”
Simpson is doing all he can to keep a positive mentality around the Prostar after Town’s miserable March.
“I didn’t get carried away and start shouting from the roof tops in January and February when we had some really positive results, so I’m not going to get screwed up about what happened last
“We came back in and got the players going again because now the most important game is this weekend’s. We’ve got Torquay on Saturday and we need to go and turn it around.
“That’s what we’re talking about with the players, making sure they’re fully aware of their responsibilities, and we just have to keep our fingers crossed that this weekend is when we’re going to get a result.
“We’re five points off the play-offs with eight games to go so there are enough points to play for. If we carry on like we have been the last four games we can forget about it, but that’s not the way we’re thinking.
“Let everybody else just count us out and write us off – and that includes our own supporters – and the players in the changing room and the staff will keep going as we have been all season and do all we can to make it right.”
Simpson added he would be calling on his past experiences in management to get Town’s season moving in the right direction again.
“This is big challenge because it’s the one I’m in at the moment, but at Carlisle we were in a more desperate situation,” he said. “We were bottom of the league and we had 12 straight defeats. This is a test but I think, because of my experience in football, I can deal with it better.
“You’re always a few results away from risking that you’re going to lose your job.
“I don’t believe for one minute from what I’ve seen that the players have chucked it in. They’re still at it and still want to go and make it right. As long as we’ve got that we’ve got a chance.”
By Stuart Dunn