Under-fire Rochdale boss Brian Barry-Murphy admitted his players were hurting after a 2-0 loss at home to Shrewsbury left them staring relegation in the face.

Second-half goals from Josh Daniels and Josh Vela secured the win to move Shrewsbury further away from the drop zone and increase Dale’s despair at the foot of the table.

Barry-Murphy, who’s side sit five points from safety, said: “Nobody wants to hear me say we played well, we created chances and we should have won the game because we didn’t win it.

“I think we were all aware of the importance of tonight’s game and the lads put everything into it and prepared for it immaculately and our performance for large parts was very good. We just didn’t take the chances and it feels very difficult for us and the lads are hurting in the changing room.

“I’ve spoken about not being obsessed with the table and where we are, but the players know and it can lead to anxiety.”

Dale went into the game bottom of the table and have now managed just one win from their last 17 matches.

They started well, Stephen Humphrys seeing a shot saved by Harry Burgoyne inside two minutes and the striker desperately unlucky later in the half when he slid in to meet Matt Done’s delivery only for the ball to stick under his legs yards from goal.

The visitors finished the opening period in the ascendancy, Nathanael Ogbeta bringing a save out of Gavin Bazunu with a curling effort.

And the Shrews’ momentum told in the 55th minute as they took the lead, Shaun Whalley’s deep cross finding Daniels at the back post and he managed to guide a header into the roof of Bazunu’s net from a tight angle.

The game was all but wrapped up after 64 minutes as Vela broke clear and fired past Bazunu.

Humphrys had an angled volley saved late on, but Rochdale’s lack of confidence was evident, this being their seventh successive game without a goal.

Aaron Wilbraham, part of the absent Steve Cotterill’s coaching team at Shrewsbury, was at Rochdale last season and knew the Shrews would be up against a tough opponent.

“It was a great team performance,” he said. “We started off a little shaky after a couple of bad results, but there was no need for any nerves and I think once we settled into the game we were the better team and we played the better football in the second half. The win was fully deserved.

“We grew in confidence as the game wore on. We let them have a few chances which I told the lads afterwards to learn from – we don’t want to give teams a leg up.

“Everyone was on the same page, everyone fighting for each other and that is when we’re at our best.”