After a gutting defeat at Plymouth at the weekend (a game I was fortunate not to be able to go to, in the end!), the Shrews host fellow promotion hopefuls Cheltenham on a Tuesday night, under the lights. Some time ago now, Cheltenham announced an initiative to provide free coach travel to this game for their fans after Yates was on hand to witness the witty banter of the mighty Shrews fans reach unparalleled levels as we outsung Crawley and launched tirades of abuse down to the whale that is Steve Evans. They obviously rate us as a team and a crowd, and believe they need every fan possible there to encourage their keeper with his early timewasting which I have a nasty suspicion we might see. Anyway, back to the matter in hand. Cheltenham started the season in fine style, and looked a good bet for the title before Christmas despite being tipped for a relegation dogfight pre-season. However, the unfortunate ascent of Swindon coincided with Cheltenham's little race-horsey bubble deflating somewhat, and they come to us looking for a first win in five, having dropped out the top three with a run of two wins in 10. Cheltenham: Recent League Form: DWDLLL Top Scorers: Duffy (15), Mohammed (9), Spencer (8) Last Meeting: Cheltenham 0-0 Shrewsbury League Position: 5[SUP]th[/SUP]; 64 points from 37 games; GD 17 Away Record: W9, D3, L6, F32, A25 Shrewsbury's Recent League Form: LWDDWL Shrewsbury's Home Record: W13, D4, L0, F28, A10 Lenny's SUPER Fact: Cheltenham have had 2 red cards in all competitions this season. Lenny's GRANDISON Fact: Jermaine Grandison does not wear condoms. There is no such thing as protection from Jermaine Grandison. Lenny's Prediction: Shrewsbury 2-1 Cheltenham (Collins, Wright) Attendance 5,412
so its shrews against the nearly men. i am sure saturdays result was a blip and not a sign of bottling it, to quote some comedians results. Lh gills 0-3,L a swindon 0-1,L a morecambe 1-3,d h cobblers 2-2 w h brewers 2-0,d h wombles 0-0 and the result that boosts their gd, w a daggers 5-0. cheltenham are a busted flush slipping down the league. gt must put out a team that can score goals, we can no longer stick lemons up front, only 2 goal honed strikers. collins plus 1. please start with wroe and have young tom on the bench just in case its pancake day up front. i go for 3-1 to shrews. wright, wroe collins. oh and you might give ben smith a go in goal. neal was responsible for both the goals at gulls and argyle. att 5669. come on you shrews, breath on em, floreat salopia. no more foul ups we are going all out for auto promo. i say this to the squad, our aim is promo. your aim will help. another good one lenny
It could be the right time to play Cheltenham and, while we are in no great form ourselves, we managed four points from Crawley and Oxford at home despite being outplayed for large parts of those games. I go for a rousing 2-0 victory with Collins getting both to get our promotion train back on the rails.
Regarding Grandison's super fact - I just had a vision of 16 offspring being part of a supershrew team in the future!!!
#Down the Oteley road to see the Shrewsbury Aces Shrewsbury 2 v 1 Cheltenham Collins Morgan Att: 5700 Come on you blues!
if ksd is true, town are bottling it.it is too late for the ides of march. any way we have 11 goers for this game coys, bots, fs, amwythig am byth
Shrews 1-1 Chelt (Jombardi, Wright) attendance 5017. A big, big game. We really don't help ourselves do we? At least fortress Greenhous is nigh on impregnable- we can break the 26-match unbeaten record by not losing.
Me and my old man will be there. Unfortunately bumbling about at school means i'll be missing Morecambe and Vale
well played shrews, nice of nicky wroe to prove a point to uncle graham after 41 secs, well done el tel gornell. we have a very sick not 606 tonight. it has taken me 4 hours to get on here tonight. how would they cope if all the clubs were up and running on not 606, well done shrews, bring on morecambe
A much improved performance with both full backs and Morgan omitted. Cheltenham were largely reduced to long range shooting and were much more physical than I anticipated. For the first time this season (as far as I can remember) the opposition keeper gifted us a goal. MOM. A toss up between Wroe and Richards (assured display at full back)
I was very impressed with Cheltenham their bandaged number 22? player looked a real threat from start to finish. Cheltenham look a good team and have good speed within the squad that obviously aim to counter attack and rush the defensive line. Neal back his his reliable self, did a good mix of kicks and throws that worked for the team - although got a warning about time wasting again. Richards did a great job at LB and still provided quality passes up field. Grandison back again at RB did a good job with Taylor, gained a few stitches along the way. CB players all looked solid and did some good passes rather than hoofs. Wroe looked good alongside McAllister in CM. Wrighty battled and did some clever stuff, but some will always remember him for what he failed to succeed at. Gornell had some great moments earlier on but seemed to phase in and out of the game, but he got a deserved goal. I think Gornell has really good technical and trickery in his skill set but others need to be aware of where he is likely to run so that they direct the ball to where it needs to go, when this happens he will score more for sure. Collins looked swamped by their tall defenders but worked his socks off and almost sat in midfield for laters parts of the match, but also got an assist. MOM? Hard to judge - Grandison, Richards, Wroe - the list could be longer than this!
The lads played excellently against a good team. It says a lot that we made them look average with being forced to shoot from range and I agree that they were a physical lot. Reminded me most of Norwich in the PL- well drilled, but Yates will be fuming about the wide open space that allowed Wroe to ghost into the box as if he were Frank Lampard and give Butland no chance after great, typically bullish (if you'll pardon the pun) tenacity from Collins- surely most improved player of recent times. Did they rehearse it on the training ground? A nice change to score early for once. Wroe should've had another were it not for an outstanding instinctive save from Butland down bottom corner, but then he went and gifted Gornell the 2nd.
