COMMENT. The inside story as Paul Hurst leaves Shrewsbury Town with his reputation intact

The 50-year-old was relieved of his duties on Sunday afternoon after a run of two wins in 19 games - the last of which was a 2-1 defeat at Salford in the first round of the FA Cup. 

Hurst had a brilliant spell in charge of the club first time around taking them to Wembley twice and a third-placed League One finish. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but re-appointing him in January this year has not been quite so successful. 

Hurst will have been pleased with the fact he kept Town up on the penultimate day of the 2023/24 campaign. But the squad he built for this season has been unable to find any momentum and has ultimately resulted in him losing his job. 

So has Hurst's stock fallen among the Shrewsbury fan base? Well, the answer to that is no. Many will feel Hurst is a scapegoat for a wider problem with a club that has consistently regressed since Steve Cotterill left Shropshire in the summer of 2023. 

In fact, Shrewsbury have now had eight different managers in the last 10 seasons - all spent in the third tier. But it now looks like Shrewsbury will need a miracle to survive this campaign as they sit second bottom of the division having taken just eight points from 14 games. 

The statement from the club announcing Hurst's sacking saw the chairman Roland Wycherley claim 'responsibility' for the rehiring of him as head coach. At first, director of football Micky Moore had said he was involved in the process, but this statement confirms Hurst was Wycherley's man from the outset. 

Hurst's second spell in charge started in the best possible fashion with a brilliant 2-0 victory at Northampton. In truth, that was perhaps the highlight of his reign. 

That game saw Shrewsbury play brilliant football which they had not seen under previous head coach Matt Taylor. They created chance after chance and should have won by much more than the two goals. 

But just as you expected Town to kick on after their Hurst audition, they stagnated and struggled to find any form of consistency. There were a couple of good away wins at Reading and Port Vale as Shrewsbury crawled to safety and ended the campaign winless in seven. 

There was a rebuild in the summer, which Hurst took charge of, as the club released eight first-team players. Big earners like Marko Marosi and Chey Dunkley moved on despite being offered the chance to stay in Shropshire and Hurst had a blank canvas from which to work. 

Given Shrewsbury's clear budgetary restrictions, a lot of the players brought in have come from League Two. They also went into the loan market bringing in several players for the season from the Premier League. 

This current campaign has just not got going and two wins out of 14 in the league this season is just not good enough - Hurst would admit that himself. The big issue has been their defensive record which has seen them unable to tighten up at the back. 

They have managed to keep just one clean sheet all season and that has cost them. At times it has been hard to understand why talented midfielder Tommi O'Reilly has not found himself in the team. The Aston Villa loanee is arguably Town's most gifted player. 

And Hurst was also been accused by some supporters of having his favourites with Funso Ojo and Alex Gilliead - both brought in at the end of the transfer window - seeming to get more opportunity than others. 

He was been let down by senior players like Toto Nsiala, someone he signed for the fourth time, who has committed several individual mistakes which has cost Shrewsbury games. 

But Hurst was a pleasure to deal with from a press perspective. 

He was firm but realised journalists had a job to do in asking questions and was always prepared to answer. The former Grimsby man had a nigh-on impossible job leading Shrewsbury through what is an incredibly tough period for the club. 

His reputation among the fans has not been tarnished despite this unsuccessful spell. That is a credit to the job he did the first time around and the way he has conducted himself throughout. Hurst can leave with his held high.