AFTER last year, our home record is like deja vu.

We have a great away record and a really poor home one.

We have thought about it a great deal and tried to do things which will change it.

For me, it’s about concentration. Away from home, we concentrate for the majority of the game but at home we have had a tendency to switch off and not concentrate as well as we should.

To change that involves constant work and talking with the players to keep their spirits up and get them to believe in what they are doing.

The next two home games, against Cheltenham and Swindon, are very big games and the crowd can play their part.

I understand that it is a chicken-and-egg situation and that they want to see a winning team at home. So do I, because it would make a massive difference to our league position.

Our home form is poor but there are times, as on Saturday, when you have to hold your hands up and say Shrewsbury had just a bit more quality at the right times in the game.

There wasn’t that much between the teams; they just had the quality to hurt us when they needed to.

The match also highlighted again the problem with consistency from referees when there was a clear handball offence just before half-time.

At the moment, I don’t believe anyone knows how the rules are interpreted and it’s just a mess.

I understand that some things are not deliberate and some are but handball is handball, whether it is intentional or not.

We tried to appeal the sending-off of Benoit Dalibard and, while the panel agreed that it was not intentional, they said it was dangerous play.

On Saturday, the handball offence was not intentional but stopped the ball going where it should have been going — to Ben Purkiss.

It makes it very difficult and very frustrating for managers and players.

We have also extended the contracts of Michael Townsend, Dan Hanford and Sam Clucas until the end of next season.

Michael has been one of our most consistent performers in the last three or four months. He has shown great character to come back from the problems he had early in the season.

He’s really got his head down, worked very hard at his game and that’s shown through in his performances.

Dan is a young player who has many good attributes to his game and it’s the same with Sam.

He can play in a number of different positions and they are ones for the future.

We have to look to develop young players that we can sell on in the future and those two are in that category.

We have a number of younger players in the squad now and with the size of our budget and the money available to us, we have no option but to do that.

Otherwise we will not have the numbers within the squad and will be over the 55 per cent budget-marker.

It’s difficult when your budget is small in comparison with other teams in the division but these are the things you have to deal with.

You have to get the players working as hard as they can and try to develop them into better players.

On Saturday, Gillingham will be another decent, well organised side.

We will have to be at our best — I said that last Saturday and this weekend will be exactly the same.