Defeat dents Jackson's chances of landing Bradford City job

Mark Lawn had stressed that Saturday was a “big game” for Jackson and his prospects of winning the hot-seat full-time.

The 2-1 loss to Shrewsbury, after Tom Adeyemi had scored first for the home side, leaves questions unanswered as the board prepare to interview the remainder of their short-list.

Jackson saw his three-game unbeaten run shot down by substitute Tom Bradshaw’s late double and said: “You can’t go on one game.

“I know the situation now but I’m not so sure about the bigger picture. I desperately want the job.

“We didn’t get the result we needed but I’m not the one to answer that (question).”

Jon McLaughlin kept City in the game during a one-sided first half before Adeyemi’s strike looked set to put them on the way to a third win in four.

Jackson was frustrated to finish empty-handed.

He added: “When we scored, I thought we’d go on and win comfortably. Shrewsbury lost the ideas they’d had in the first half and we took control.

“But we went to sleep from a throw-in by the dug-out and all of a sudden it’s 1-1. I was disappointed with dropping (two) points and then to come away with nothing is hard. I can’t fault my players. We took on a side that will probably go up and we’re sixth bottom of this division.

“All I can ask as a manager is that the players have a go and in he second half they did that.

“We had five or six key players out and did really well. I thought the back four looked comfortable.

“You could see from Shrewsbury’s celebrations in the dressing room what it meant to them to win here, being such a big club.

“Darren Stephenson came on to make his debut and gave everybody in the stadium a lift. A lot of positives came out of it but the downside is that we’ve dropped points.”

Jackson is still targeting 50 points as the safety mark.

“We probably need another one or two wins, though it might be more than that, and we’ve got another in-form side in Stevenage next week.”