Ollie Westbury on Paul Hurst's sacking as Shrewsbury Town boss

Ollie Westbury reflects and wraps up a day that saw Paul Hurst sacked as Salop boss, and chairman Roland Wycherley attempt to resign.

Transcript

00:00One of the first things that you experience when a football manager loses his job, especially

00:05when you work with him on a day-to-day basis, is sadness. And that's one of the things that

00:09you experience now that Paul Hurst has lost his job as Shrewsbury Town Head Coach. He

00:14was sacked after a poor start to the season from a Shrewsbury perspective. Eight points

00:21from 14 games in the league table, it leaves them second from bottom. They've also exited

00:26the FA Cup in the first round for the first time since 2013. So you can make no bones

00:32about it, it has been difficult. The winless run or the lack of wins this season, we've

00:37just seen I think three home wins over the course of the campaign, not the campaign,

00:42over the whole calendar year and one of those was when Matt Taylor was in charge on New

00:45Year's Day last year. So things have not been easy on the field but there are extenuating

00:52circumstances. Shrewsbury are going through a really tough time as a club in general with

00:57the difficulties that they're having off the field with their losses that they made earlier

01:03this year. So it's been a challenging spell. There are certain things that have been tough

01:08for town and there are certain instances and elements that have not helped the Shrewsbury

01:14Town boss. Perhaps they've not been able to tighten up at the back which has been something

01:19that has cost them. They've kept one clean sheet so far this season and that is very

01:25much a recipe for disaster. There's a few other things that have gone on that are perhaps

01:32ultimately he's the head coach and he makes the decisions on the team but it was strange

01:37to not see someone like a Tommy O'Reilly get a go until yesterday. But those are decisions

01:44that are just a matter of opinion. But what cannot be denied is that he leaves Shrewsbury

01:49with his head held high. He leaves with his relationship with the club untarnished after

01:55how successful he was in his first spell at the club back in 2017-18 before he left after

02:03that playoff final. So I think Paul Hurst will very much be remembered for all the good

02:09things that he achieved during his time in Shropshire but unfortunately he's been unable

02:16to turn around the Shrewsbury ship so far this season as they have really, really struggled.

02:24Is he a bit of a scapegoat? Probably yes. He's probably taking the flack and taking

02:29the blame for a lot of issues that are going on at the football club and that need to be

02:34resolved. It's going to be an interesting week as Shrewsbury prepare for their game

02:38against Burton Albion on Saturday. A huge, huge match. Will they have a new manager or

02:44new head coach in the dugout for that game? For all your info, for all your news, for

02:49all your comment and all your opinion, you've got to stay tuned to shropshire.com.