Shrewsbury squad 'must not mentally check out'

Shrewsbury Town head coach Gavin Cowan said he is concerned some of his squad are in danger of "mentally checking out" and thinking they are "on the beach" with the club's fight to avoid relegation in League Two over.

After their sixth win in seven games at Chesterfield on 7 March, Salop were 13 points clear of the bottom two but three consecutive defeats have cut that to 11 with seven games remaining.

Saturday's 4-0 hammering by Crewe Alexandra was their third in a row at home and their third on the spin without scoring.

Cowan said he will use this week's build-up to the trip to struggling Newport County on Saturday to have some conversations with his squad.

"I can have some really important meetings with the players but ultimately they know they're going to have to be better," he told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"That [Crewe performance] is not at all acceptable to this club.

"We are still working towards a culture, getting this club back to being connected and I think it's now you get to find out about people - whether that's the players, the staff, myself... We're going to have to ask questions."

When Cowan replaced Michael Appleton at the end of January, Town were only two points clear of danger.

But a superb run of five wins in a row - and six in Cowan's first nine in charge - pulled Salop well clear of trouble and won him the manager of the month award for February in the process.

But their recent wobble has got the head coach keen to stamp out any complacency that might have crept in.

"I think the players that have been on the pitch have been more than capable but I do think there's a mentality that we've checked out and we're already on the beach for the summer," he said.

"Let me tell you that's definitely not the mentality from myself and my staff - we're trying to drive standards and make sure we finish the season like the fans deserve.

"I always want to be accountable. We're playing catch-up from a particularly poor season so we want to finish off the next seven games certainly better than what people saw out there [against Crewe]."