Our worst yet, was how Gillingham boss Steve Lovell summed up Saturday’s performance.

The Gills were off the pace in the relegation battle against Shrewsbury and defeat leaves them still looking over their shoulders.

Many fans booed the Gills off at the final whistle, following yet another home loss, and the manager wasn’t impressed either.

He said: “That’s probably the worst performance by my team since I have been in charge.

“Even when we went to Southend last year on Easter Bank Holiday and lost 4-0, I thought second half (in that game) we showed something but (against Shrewsbury) there was nothing there at all. I don’t know where it came from.

“We had been on a decent run, alright we were missing a couple of players, Leo being ill, but there was no excuse. I feel sorry for all of the supporters who turned up and watched us. It was a very poor performance.”

• Report: Gillingham 0 Shrewsbury Town 2

Gillingham might have gone ahead early on, when Billy Bingham struck a post, but it was downhill from there.

Lovell said: “We hit the post, had a couple of good crosses into the box, which we didn’t get anyone on the end of.

“Certain players didn’t do themselves any justice whatsoever, they might have had a good season up until now but there are five games to go, the season is 46 games long, not 40-41 and they didn’t perform.

“There was no intensity, there was no spark, it was dead, it was so lacklustre and it’s not us.

“They (Shrewsbury) really dug in and defended well and they got their bodies in the way when they needed to.

“Their two goals were too easy, they deserved their win, no doubt about that. We can’t take anything from the game, the only plus is that we go into next Friday learning from this, that is what we have to do.”

Lovell switched formation and made a change at the break, with Elliott List replacing Billy Bingham, but Shrewsbury scored shortly after the restart.

“You try,” said Lovell.

“They had one upfront so we went to three at the back, we tried to push people on, but the first goal came through Elliott probably not being defensive minded, the fells plays it inside and they score.

“We have made changes this year, changed shape and gone onto get something from a game, we tried everything but whatever we tried I don’t think it would have made a difference because people were just off it.

“They looked as if they had already played 90 minutes before they went out there but we have tried in training to make sure they are sharpe. I don’t know. They weren’t my players out there.”