Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Bolton

Shrewsbury Town - whipping boys earlier in the season are on a good run - 11 points and unbeaten in their last 5 games - and now they sit just one point and two places above us (unless Wimbledon win one of their games in hand tonight) They were in the relegation spots until the end of November then suddenly produced a fighting home draw against Sunderland and they haven't looked back since either home or away.

I honestly don't know what to expect from Saturday's game. On our side we have a new system and some new players who have shown a fair bit of promise last weekend and we have to hope they'll push on from there as they get to know one another better.

It will be a match up in midfield as Shrewsbury also play 352 and include Josh Vela, formerly of this parish in their ranks. Bowman and Udoh are a decent strike partnership and the rest can mix it up all over the park as we know from Vela's past performances.

I imagine this is a game Shrewsbury expect to win given their recent results and performances - but perhaps Ipswich were thinking the same at the weekend?

Decent pitch usually, so maybe it will help us pass it around more fluidly but providing we play well and don't make any daft errors we should be OK.

I'm thinking 1 - 1 but TBH it could be anything.

I’m more confident than that Lusty and Saturdays win against Ipswich will have filled the team with confidence which has been badly missing. Evatt’s change in system to give us two up top is much more suited to the players we have so I’m going for a 0-2 win to Wanderers.

Whitesince63 wrote:I’m more confident than that Lusty and Saturdays win against Ipswich will have filled the team with confidence which has been badly missing. Evatt’s change in system to give us two up top is much more suited to the players we have so I’m going for a 0-2 win to Wanderers.

I'm only being cautious because we have new players and a new system and Shrewsbury also play 352 but are settled into that system which has been producing results for them.

We can sneak this i reckon if we play the same formation as Saturday. I'll go for a narrow win, either 1-0 or 2-1

Same as Saturday so it will be interesting to see how it works against an established 352

The goal was a thing of beauty but the result was a travesty for them seeing as they dominated us throughout. Not that I'm bothered

3 well needed points there!

How could they see a striker wearing #10 and leave him unmarked on the edge of the box? They deserved that - and so did we!

That's a something we have been lacking a quaiity finish.

Yep that was a good ol' smash and grab.  They will feel hard done by - but the same thing has happened to us in the past.  
Not sure why we were toothless today - probably too much backwards and sideways again. Not much in the way of through balls for strikers to run on to - we seem to have our backs to goal with a man on all the time.
Anyhow taking the three points --- COYWM.

terenceanne wrote:Yep that was a good ol' smash and grab.  They will feel hard done by - but the same thing has happened to us in the past.  
Not sure why we were toothless today - probably too much backwards and sideways again. Not much in the way of through balls for strikers to run on to - we seem to have our backs to goal with a man on all the time.
Anyhow taking the three points --- COYWM.

Much to admire about how Shrewsbury have progressed. They have some good players and a settled system with which they pinned us back and used the wings well to move us around from side to side whilst starving us of high possession and chances for much of the game. Pretty much what we did to Ipswich. TBH some of our passing when we occasionally got up the park wasn't up to standard, but we were at least competitive in the second half and one mistake and a quality strike decided it.
Thought we defended well as a unit for the most part and got another clean sheet but we had to survive a few scares and ride our luck at times. Slight concern was how they managed to move it forward through the channels too easily.

Second place Sunderland next up and they play 343 so we'll need another gear to win that, but today I'm a happy bunny 

Didn’t think Shrewsbury were that hard done by, they edged it but neither team played well until the last 10 minutes when I think we started to look dangerous.

Great finish from Charles and ideal for him to get a goal. Brilliant to nick it, feel some momentum building - definitely more solid with 3 at the back. Onwards and upwards.

Dion interview:

Just as well we have won the last two games, we'd have been in the bottom four if we had lost both which we possibly should have done on the balance of play.

Young Trafford very nearly gave away early goals in both games and was lucky to get away with it on both occasions. That said, he's done well to keep two clean sheets and generally looks more confident than Dixon.

Another poor, poor performance where we could have been 3-0 down at h/t. At least we managed to stay in the game and one moment of magic was enough to win it. Great 3 points, but we have far from turned the corner.

Again, thought the keeper and defence were shaky. We still need a decent central defender at the very least.

I listened to the game and never really felt like we would concede, Trafford had sod all to do .

wessy wrote:I listened to the game and never really felt like we would concede, Trafford had sod all to do .

You're absolutely correct, if you can't see it, it can't have happened.