On Tuesday night our five-game unbeaten run came to an end against Hartlepool.

I was disappointed, the players were disappointed, and understandably, so were our supporters.

Anyone that’s been to watch us this season knows that I’m not one of these managers that stands on the touchline ranting, raving and gesticulating wildly.

There’s nothing wrong with doing that – it’s just it’s not my style.

 Latest United news:

But just because I don’t get all het up, it doesn’t mean I don’t care, or that I’m disengaged with what’s happening on the pitch.

It’s quite the opposite, I’m 100 per cent focused, and Tuesday’s defeat really hurt me – but we have to move on care more than anyone about results, and performances.

I just feel that I do my job better when I’m calm – I can analyse the game more clearly, and can make more measured and effective decisions about to how change things.

In addition, and it’s something I’ve said before, it’s really important that the players, the staff and myself try to stay on an even keel from game to game and don’t get overly emotional.

Yes, we lost the game on Tuesday, but it’s just one defeat, and it followed our best run of the season.

One bad result doesn’t make you a bad team overnight, and the great thing is that we’ve got the opportunity today to quickly get back on track.

It will tough game against Shrewsbury – they’re a strong side that are going well – but we’ve proven that we have the ability, and the fight, to take points off the top teams.

We did it at Bury, we did it against Plymouth last weekend, and we’ve got every chance of doing it again today.

On Tuesday, the statistics make for interesting reading.

There wasn’t much free-flowing football, and granted, it wasn’t a night for the purists, but we really did dominate for long spells – we just came unstuck as a result of a couple of individual errors made at the wrong times.

We had 66 per cent of the possession, and had enough attempts to win – 12 in total.

I did feel we lacked a little bit of a cutting edge at times, and on that point, I think we’ve missed Danny Hylton during the last two matches.

Danny can make something happen out of nothing.

He can drop a shoulder and take an opponent out of the game in an instant, opening up the whole pitch, and we’re glad to be able to call on his services again today.

Meanwhile, it's been another busy week in the Champions League, with some cracking matches, but unfortunately all of the English teams have now been eliminated.

It’s quite a sad state of affairs, and is very different from five years ago or so when our clubs were challenging for the trophy on a regular basis.

There’s been a lot said about how the English game isn’t what it used to be, that the standard has dropped, and how the style of football in the Premier League – which is fast and furious, and where possession changes hands frequently – actually works to the detriment of English sides in Europe.

From my point of view, I don’t think it’s simple as that. When you look at all three ties involving English teams over the past month, tactical naivety plays a part.

Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City all have squads filled with world-class players, players that are proven at the highest level and are the equal of those at Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and the like.

For me, all three of them didn’t quite get it right in terms of their game management, which is a shame. Hopefully something they’ll all learn from their experiences and come back stronger next season.