JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink says Shrewsbury made it very difficult for the Brewers as they frustrated his side and held on for a 2-1 win.
After a bizarre early goal from a deflected cross, the visitors went 2-0 up through a Harry Chapman volley before Sean Clare pulled one back for Albion.
But Hasselbaink thought his team were mentally tired and didn’t have the usual energy.
He said: “Shrewsbury are a difficult team to play against. They keep a lot of people behind the ball. They are not a team you want to go 1-0 down to, as they want to counter attack you. They slow the game down and take you off your rhythm, so you need to score the first goal, but we made a mistake and gave them the first goal.
“We hadn’t started really well but then we conceded and made life difficult. The second goal was a bigger disappointment as we should have had someone stopping their player volleying it in.”
The Clare goal gave Albion hope, but they couldn’t fashion a clear-cut chance that might have seen them earn a draw.
Hasselbaink said: “After that we put Fondop on, went for a 4-4-2 but we didn’t get enough crosses in. We went a bit more direct and needed crosses in the box.
“I think we have mentally very tired people. It has been a very good two months, but we can see people are tired and the international break will do us good. If we could have done, we would not have played tonight, but we couldn’t get another date in so had to play it.
“We knew we were at our bare bones and took a chance with Michael Bostwick who has only trained one day. That was a risk so you can see the break is coming at the right time.
“We will be in tomorrow, then I will give them a few days off and then on Monday we go again for the remainder of the season.”