Shrewsbury Town have parted company with head coach Michael Appleton with the club two points outside the relegation zone in League Two.
Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat by promotion-chasing Cambridge United was their sixth in the last seven games in the league and followed Saturday’s 5-1 hammering by MK Dons.
Shrewsbury’s only win in their last 11 league matches was their 1-0 victory over relegation rivals Harrogate Town on 17 January.
Former Blackpool, Oxford and Lincoln boss Appleton leaves after less than a year in charge and with the club uncomfortably close to the drop with 19 games remaining.
Appleton’s assistant Richard O’Donnell has also left.
Appleton’s departure brings an end to a difficult spell in charge that began when the 50-year-old was brought in on a short-term basis last March after the shock exit of Gareth Ainsworth to Gillingham, with Town 14 points from safety in League One.
Despite not being able to reverse the club’s inexorable slide to relegation, Appleton signed a two-year deal in May and was confident the club could recover and have a decent shot at being in the mix for promotion this term.
But that never materialised, with only one win in their first 11 League Two games setting the tone for another tough campaign, their first in the fourth tier for a decade.
After successfully negotiating two pressurised ties against non-league sides in the first two rounds of the FA Cup, hopes that a run in the competition might ignite their season were ruthlessly ended by a 6-1 thrashing in the third round against Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers.
With only four more league victories in their last 16 games, the club are now fighting to preserve their Football League status.
There is no doubt Appleton’s 10 months at Croud Meadow coincided with a turbulent period on and off the field.
Ainsworth’s sudden exit to Kent after four months in charge left Town reeling, 14 points from safety in League One with only nine games left, and Appleton with a near-impossible job to keep them up.
After a summer rebuilding the squad for life in League Two, director of football Micky Moore left three games into the season and has not been replaced, with the club now moving on without anyone in that role.
Added to that shift in direction, the ongoing search for new owners drags on following the collapse of two takeover deals in six months.
Owner and chairman Roland Wycherley, celebrating 30 years at the helm in 2026, is still hopeful the club can be sold, but, for now, the more pressing search is for a fifth head coach in two and a half years.
