THE first stage of rehabilitation is to acknowledge you have a problem, and David Flitcroft had little option but to do that on Tuesday night.

In hindsight, the Bury boss admitted the humiliation at Greenhous Meadow had been coming – it was his side’s third straight away defeat.

But their previous failures at Exeter and Wimbledon were only by the odd goal, and were quickly followed by comprehensive victories at home – a fact Flitcroft admits could have coloured his thinking.

Yet he was brutally brought to his senses after watching Bury concede a hat-trick from former striker Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro – who had scored just three times in his previous 69 games – as well as goals from Shrewsbury captain Connor Goldson and substitute Jordan Clark.

“I know we have got a problem away from home and obviously it was evident tonight,” he said, immediately after the defeat.

“But the buck stops with me. I am the manager, I pick the team, I pick the formation and it’s not worked tonight.

“I have got to analyse my performance and make sure it doesn’t happen again because I am hurting.

“I think the cracks were starting to show, certainly against Wimbledon.

“I think I got drawn in by such a good performance against Portsmouth (last Saturday) to go with the same formula, but it’s not worked.

“The performance was good at Exeter, the Wimbledon one wasn’t and this was shocking.

“So yes, I have learned a lot, but I think I was already beginning to build up a picture about what we needed away from home, probably before today.”

If the warning signs were clear in Bury’s previous away performances, the home side’s stunning early season form at Greenhous Meadow was also well documented.

Micky Mellon’s promotion challengers went into the match with the division’s only unbeaten home record, and proved too strong from the first to the final whistle.

Akpa Akpro, who failed to score in 10 appearances for Bury last season, inflicted the opening blow just three minutes into a blustery night. He gambled on a long punt up field by Goldson and, after Nathan Cameron had misjudged the flight of the ball, plucked it out of the air with sublime control before firing it into the bottom corner.

Goldson forced a diving save from Bury stopper Rob Lainton with a strong header soon after, but the away defence failed to take heed as the big centre-back was given a free run at a Bobby Grant corner in the 19th minute to head home Shrewsbury’s second.

And any hopes of a comeback were all but dashed on 35 minutes when Akpa Akpro rose highest at the back post to nod home James Collins’ high looping cross.

Flitcroft replaced striker Danny Rose and attacking midfielder Nicky Adams with the more defensive options of full-back Chris Hussey and tough tackler Andrew Tutte at the break.

If damage limitation was his intention, the changes did nothing to stem the flow of goals as Akpa Akpro turned sharply in the box on 51 minutes before finishing off is hat-trick with a low shot across goal.

The marking, as with the three previous goals, was non-existent and Shrews centre-back Nathaniel Knight-Percival almost punished their lax defending further when he missed a golden chance to make it five from a corner.

Bury wing-back Craig Jones did his best to restore a little pride, having two decent attempts charged down.

But substitute Jordan Clark heaped on the misery with a close-range strike in the 73rd minute before star man Akpa Akpro was withdrawn to a standing ovation.

Lainton smothered a late Knight-Percival header to stop any further embarrassment, but Flitcroft accepts he may have to look to the loan market to avoid a fourth straight away defeat at Southend on Saturday.

“We didn’t get to grips with a very good team,” he said.

“The players were made well aware of the test, and it was an outstanding performance by Shrewsbury, but we aided them in every single goal they scored and it could have been seven or eight.

“I have never run away from anything, though.

“We have embarrassed the football club tonight, but we will stick together and make sure we will get it right because we will find a formula, there is no doubt about that.

“We will just have to see whether that is from within the dressing room or via some outside influences.

“We have done well to this point, but maybe it is time now to have an assessment period.

“Certainly that is taking nothing away from Shrewsbury because as bad as we were they were very good and we didn’t have enough to stop them.”

SHREWSBURY: Leutwiler; Grandison, Goldson, Knight-Percival; Grimmer, Wesolowksi, Woods (Griffith 78), Grant (Clark 68), Demetriou; Collins, Akpa Akpro (Vernon 74).

Not used: Halstead, Ellis, Vincent, Caton.

BURY: Lainton 5; Cameron 4, Mills 5, McNulty 5; Jones 7, Etuhu 4, Soares 4, Mayor 5 (Sedgwick 6 66); Adams 6 (Tutte 6 45); Rose 5 (Hussey 6 45), Lowe 6.

Not used: Jalal, Thompson, Holmes, Poole.

Goals: Bury 0 Shrewsbury 5 (Akpa Akpro 3, 35 & 51, Goldson 19, Clark 73).

Yellow cards: Bury – Soares 11, Mills 47.

Referee: Andy Woolmer.

Attendance: 4,233 (349 visiting).

Star man: Craig Jones – Prizes should not be handed out for effort alone, that should be a given for any professional footballer, but when a handful of his team-mates had already given up the ghost the Welshman kept plugging away. He was the only Bury player to muster a goal threat in the second half and while Jones continued to bomb forward when all was lost, he never shirked on his defensive duties. The Bury vice-captain was not at fault for any of the Shrewsbury goals and set a decent example that sadly others failed to follow.