Absolutely bloody brilliant. A battling team performance which will live long in the memory akin to the MK Dons and Bury play-offs.
Tinned Hats - you will now have the opportunity to see a new combo up front that Morgan is banned. It could also be an opportunity for a new formation of 4-5-1.
is tom bradshaw injured, or will our marv's sit out let him on the bench. thankfully we have a team wuth strength in depth and we need a win at hereford
Excuse my French mais GrandBison's later header was BLUDDY EPIC. I've rarely gone so nuts- it was one of those moments when you spontaneously know the people in your vicinity and start jumping around like a loon (Well I did..) A fantastic result and fully deserved. Grandison will take the plaudits for a wonderful header but my motm was Collins by a country mile- as a lone striker he worked his nuts off and run their back four ragged. Now Marv's suspension could be a blessing in disguise- a chance to see how a Collins-Gornell partnership fares. JC's tounch, awareness, and shooting have all improved and his hold up play was superb. He lead the line admirably, like a flying 29 year old in his pomp not a youngster learning his trade in League 2. More of the same and he can fire us to auto promo. In fact, more of the same (a huge if) and we'll surely make the top 3 at least. Little would please me more than to see a bullish no.9 spearheading our attack and getting the goals we crave (after the Gills game GM had the third least goals scored) The spine of this team for the future is already there- Captain and Club Legend/Cult Hero in the making GrandBison and Goldson the CBs, Wildig pulling the strings, JT working the right flank relentlessly and Collins the big bad powerhouse battering defences week in week out. Compared to Matty Harrold, who gave away free-kick after free-kick, Collins worked even harder and you could see the defence didn't dilly dally when he was closing them down. COYB, a bostin result and a huge step forward. Now let's bash the carrot crunchers.
I must leap to marvellous Marvin's defence - the challenge was a rash one but refs are far too happy to give out a straight red nowadays. If that challenge was reckless then the same could be said for the Southend player who was late for the header and poleaxed Shane instead -yet he was not even booked. I am quite happy to see tackles with malicious intent punished with a red card but I think Marvin was harshly done by yesterday. In defence of his place in the team he has good pace, decent passing ability, a fantastic work rate (including his defensive duties) and makes chances for others (think of his superb cross for Collins goal at Arsenal). Yes, he is suffering a crisis of confidence in front of goal at the moment (and that can happen to £50 million pound players as well) but for me he would be one of the first names on the teamsheet every week. Well done 10-man Shrews for the fantastic effort and never-say-die attitude that ensured a famous victory - I think in David Mcallister GT might have unearthed one of those unsefish, unspectacular players who makes the team as a whole around him tick more effectively (think Gary Patterson) and I will be at Hereford on Saturday hoping the improved showing over the last two games can be translated to our away form.
GHMM - your remarks on McAllister are true, until we started watching out for him he often went unnoticed yet he did a lot of great football. Regarding red card, I read a shrimpers thread where they were surprised at the amount of red cards went their way!!
It was an epic performance from the team and the fans. In the circs, probably the best game yet at the (new) Meadow, and I've hardly missed one. Not for quality of football, though ours was high, but for drama, atmosphere, tension and the importance of the result. Had we lost, a 10 point gap would have left us rank outsiders to win the league, though still in the top 3 race. Winning puts us right back in it and I hope this will be the turning point of our season, the day we really began to turn our potential into achievement. Time will tell on that but I'm still on a high from that game over 24 hours later. I said last week that the place would go mental when Grandison scored his first goal but I hadn't imagined it coming the way it did and meaning what it did. Fabulous moment. Morgan was unlucky with the red. I didn't think it was bad at the time and the replay shows a late, but certainly not reckless, tackle. Yellow only. Their player made a meal of it, then trotted back on to play the full 90 mins. He deserved the constant booing he got. I'd accept Dickinson's claim that it was a clash of heads with Sherriff except that he was clearly late, so why no straight red for him as well? Why was his challenge not reckless when he clearly was no more in control of it than Morgan. And of course he did far more damage than Morgan, not that that's the criterion on which cards are judged. Terrible referee yesterday and no blame from me for Morgan. We need him back soon. However, the red card galvanised the team and the crowd responded to the sense of injustice. The intensity level went through the roof for the rest of the game and I think it got to Southend. They knew the crowd would howl for everything and the ref would be under pressure. We seemed to win most of the 50-50 balls for the rest of the game and were first to the ball many times when I thought we had no chance to be. Special praise for Collins, not because he worked so hard - for me that's a given for all but the most gifted players - but because of the real quality he showed. He won balls I didn't think he'd get, he held the ball intelligently and brought others into the game and he worried the Southend defence throughout. Outstanding performance. Richards and McAllister were a great partnership, the defence was magnificent, everyone played their part. My only real criticism would be that we stopped trying to play when we were 1-0 up and gave up possession too easily. That left them free to come at us and the equaliser wasn't a great surprise. The amazing thing was that we then picked our game up again and dominated and, at 2-1 up, we'd learned our lesson, kept possession better and looked as likely to score a 3rd as concede another equaliser. Now we have to put it behind us, come back to earth and start improving that away record. Let's sell out our Hereford allocation, get a result there and then follow up by raising the roof with another big derby against Vale.
I expect it'll be packed when Port Fail come to town. Absolutely. 6,000+ attendance if we win next week, and it'll be noisy as hell. Massive month, and I've never been this optimistic about Town before. COYB!
http://www.shrewsburytown.com/page/LeagueTable/0,,10443~20110125,00.html Interesting to compare the league table after 26 games last season.
Jesus, look where Bury where! I forgot they came from so far behind, shows that any team in the top 10 could still go up automatically with the league as tight as it is.
Nice overall write up ShrewdC. Their goal did come after Ryan Hall and Mohsni were brought on, both changed the way that Southend played. I sit back left of the home goal and I must admit that their shot had immense power in it, Neal got hands/limbs on to it and body was more or less behind it and the spin of the ball rolled it up and out of his hands hit the post and in to the goal - absolutely gutting. I cannot think of a player in that squad (apart from a few dodgy moments from Grandison in the first 20seconds and a couple of early touches) that I can fault. To have Jacobson perform a spin to get around a player and create a low shot from long range that missed by a cm and have another defender score the winner is fantastic. Even Regan with a pressure to perform did a grand job for the final part of the game.
Now's Regan's time to shine methinks. He's probably on a first team wage (just a guess) and in the FL paper (which i'll certainly be getting tomorrow) Kev Macca said he's a "model athlete". Time to deliver Carl me old mate! Although i didn't see any games(Youth Orchestra Course) I got the impression he was a weak link as we started slowly.
I don't think he was match fit, saying that neither was Richards when he signed. Look what he's like now, almost one of the first names on the team sheet.
Good point matster. I thought Neal had made a good save but see from the replay he knocked it in himself as he dived - unavoidable and horrible to be a keeper sometimes. Agree that Jacobson grew to have a terrific game after a wobbly start (like Grandison) - feared the worst when he was in two minds, went for the interception, missed it and the winger was in behind him. But his control of the ball and general distribution were excellent (as usual) and his defending first rate too. Richards has to be one of the first names down now. Overall, he's been outstanding throughout December/January. Probably not a literal "first name on the teamsheet" though - doesn't everyone start with the keeper? Maybe not.
boy we needed that win, Marvins red card i thought was a bit harsh, and again our defense was sleeping for their goal, but superb, it gets us back into the mix!!
