Dependable defender Shane Cansdell-Sherriff has every confidence Shrewsbury Town will soon be firing on all cylinders again – insisting: “We know we’re not a million miles away.”
Town slipped to fourth place in League Two after Tuesday’s narrow 1-0 defeat at leaders Port Vale, which followed hot on the heels of the cruel blow of conceding a stoppage time equaliser at Wycombe Wanderers last weekend.
But Cansdell-Sherriff believes the Greenhous Meadow men have what it takes to quickly get back on track at home to Torquay United on Saturday.
“The lads have been talking about it and we know it’s not far off,” said the Australian.
“We know it’s not a million miles away. We took a lot out of Saturday’s game at Wycombe. We could have been 3-0 or 4-0 up at half time so we’ve got to keep that memory.
“Then with a little bit more energy on the ball at Port Vale on Tuesday we could have got the result we wanted.”
Cansdell-Sherriff added the Town players were now looking forward to getting back on home soil and building on an unbeaten record of four wins and a draw at the Meadow this season after testing back-to-back away trips.
“We’ve got a big open pitch and it suits us fine,” he said.
“The home crowd has been fantastic this season and hopefully we can play some exciting football again.
“It happens to the best of teams to have a wobble, especially in our league, so this might be our wobble now.
“I’ll take a draw and a loss to then go forward. Hopefully this is our wobble and we’ll go out and win six on the bounce now.”
Cansdell-Sherriff admitted Tuesday’s slender defeat in the Potteries was disappointing as Town fell five points adrift of Vale in the table – but he’s already looking forward to playing Micky Adams’s side again later this season after labelling them arrogant.
“I don’t think we were quite at the races on Tuesday,” he said.
“We didn’t pass the ball the way that we can and we allowed them to put a bit more pressure on us than we should have.
“But they didn’t cause us a lot of trouble, they scored the goal from outside the box, and they didn’t get in behind us.
“It was one of those games that could have gone either way and it was frustrating because we know we’re better than that.
“They will have walked away thinking they’ve won the league but it’s up to us to prove them wrong.
“You could see the arrogance in them on Tuesday. It was in them from the start.
“That might have been part of their game plan to try and put us off our game, but we need to be more nasty and take it to them the next time they come to us.”
And Cansdell-Sherriff added he expects Vale to come unstuck somewhere down the line despite the midweek victory making it five league wins in a row for the men from Burslem.
“They will stumble at some stage, they’ll lose a couple,” he stressed.
“We’ve got to keep it going, we’ve got Torquay now and it’s important we get the three points.”
Torquay, the early season leaders, are without a win in their last five games and have collected just two points in a tough run which has seen them fall to sixth spot, three points behind Town.
They are expected to include towering former Shrewsbury goalkeeper Scott Bevan, who was restricted to just five league games for Town, in their side.
Meanwhile Town head to in-form League Two rivals Bury in the second round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Tuesday (7.45pm).
By Stuart Dunn