Antony Sweeney with reaction to the Bury game
Team captain Antony Sweeney spoke to us following the Bury home defeat on Saturday."We're going through a tough patch at the moment," he admitted. "If people are looking for a new manager to come through the door with some sort of magic wand I don't think it's going to happen. We've lost one manager and we've got two caretakers in charge now but it's down to the 11 that step out onto the pitch to get us out of this.
"I'm sure the lads that have been in the game for a long time will know when you're in this situation there is no easy route out. It'll be hard work but we'll put that in and see where it takes us."
"Bury are a good team, who will be up there at the end of the season, but we sat down as a squad before the season started and put ourselves in that bracket as well," he told us. "We're looking a bit foolish now because of the position we're in but it's still early days in the league.
"The stats don't lie," he admitted. "We haven't scored enough and we're conceding too many, so there's nobody who can look at themselves in the mirror and say they're doing their job.
"I can only speak for myself but the situation with the manager isn't affecting my performances," he said. "I gave everything to Kav while he was here. I've tried to do the same with Tony [Caig] and Paul [Thirlwell] and I'll carry on doing the same when the next manager comes in.
"I'm really proud to be wearing the armband and the extra responsibly I'm feeling at the moment is massive," he admitted. "Paul Thirlwell is the club captain and when he plays he'll have the armband. It's good to know he's trusted me with that responsibility at the moment. We've got a lot of young players at the moment and it's down to the more senior players to try and guide them."
Looking ahead to Tuesday night, he said: "Shrewsbury is always a tough place to go. Apart from the Bury game, we've kept ourselves in every other game and we've been let down by mistakes.
"Some points on the road are vital this week," he continued. "We're bottom of the league and we obviously don't want to be down there for too long. We need to start climbing up the table, but we've been saying that since the Luton game at the start of the season. We won't fear going to Shrewsbury, they're a League Two club for a reason, the same as us, and if they were an outstanding side they wouldn't be in this league.
"We've had little spells in every game where we've performed well, but little spells aren't going to win us games. I don't want to sound too down because I know we've got it in us, we just need to turn those little spells into extended periods of pressure. We need to put that together as a team, we need to be solid at the back then create chances and make sure we kick on."
"When I came to the club I said that when I was relegated with Hartlepool this division came as a bit of a surprise to us," he said. "It's possible that we're seeing a bit of that now. There aren't that many outstanding teams in this league. All games are tough but they're all winnable.
"Ahead of the season I spoke to a lot of people in football and I honestly said we'd be up there and in the mix," he told us. "I think we've got more than enough in the dressing room to have a really good season.