My first Saturday home game since Gillingham. Stick that in your stat pipe and smoke it. As soon as I arrived, I noticed the pitch was about as smooth as Steve Evans and as consistent as his team. Wasn't really set up to be a great game, and so it proved. We were better than them from the off, almost scored via an assist from their Oxlade-Chamberlain lookalike centre-half and could have had two more easily but for terrific saves from their keeper, but ultimately needed a goal from a set piece (the equivalent of a Yeti sighting) to get all three points. My Ratings: (I've decided to do away with the table, it was a lot of hassle but still looked crap!) Neal: 7 - Another solid game. No mistakes, kicked well and claimed crosses well at the end as we came under the cosh/ McGlaughlin: 7.5 - Played very well. I thought he was poor on the left against Oxford then improved when he went to the right, and today he was excellent, good in possession. Sharps:8 - Commanding performance. Composed at the back, and he looked lethal in the other end, scoring the goal, forcing a great save out their keeper and won a couple of good flick-ons too! Grandison: 7 - On the whole, dealt well with the threat posed by League Two's answer to Emile Heskey. A typically solid performance. Jacobson: 7 - Good to have him back. Put in a couple of dangerous balls and was composed and excellent at the back. D. McAllister: 7 - Another good performance. Helped mop things up and kept the ball moving. Richards: 7 - See just about every other performance summary ever about this guy. Mr Consistent. Wright: 7 - Looked lively. Solid with the ball, worked hard, unlucky not to get a goal when their keeper gifted it straight to Morgan, only to deny Wright with a brilliant save. Sawyers: 6 - Struggled to get into the game on his first full start. Showed a couple of nice touches (like always) but was sloppy in possession and didn't exactly run his heart out. However, he still showed more going forward than we've seen from Taylor all season. Morgan: 7 - Caused them all kinds of problems. His pace and ability with the ball as well as a terrific work rate today made him a constant threat and forced plenty of errors from Burton. Collins: 6.5 - Not quite 100% today it seemed. Worked hard and bullied their defenders, but he didn't really look like scoring. Taylor: 6.5 - Worked hard. That's it. He nearly scored from a crap cross, but the majority of the rest failed to beat the first man. One or two did find their way though, in fairness, but I said to my mate when everyone was calling for Taylor in the first half "he's not going to make us better going forward, is he?". Tezzy wasn't on the pitch long enough.
Worth noting we are one of only two teams in the top 8 (the other being, funnily enough, Swindon) to win today.
Grandison got my vote, I know Sharps got the goal but the Big G battled hard. McLaughlin is the most improved player, with McAllister in second place. Great work by Richards again in Cm and Morgan up front. Did the ref lose his whistle in the second half? Blew for every throw in taken 1cm away from where it should have been but seemed to forget about this in the second half.
Awful in the first half. It is a mystery why Sawyers started. Not really comfortable about criticising a young kid but he looked completely out of his depth and lacked application. Not a huge fan of Taylor but at least you get the effort with him. Second half was the same old same old. Burton, who were poor, should have been dead and buried long before the end. Chances missed, great goalkeeping and a superb goal line clearance kept them in with a sniff. McAllister is growing on me, so my MOM. Huge work rate. Gets stuck in and wins the ball in the air (nobody has done this in our midfield since Drummond).
Some good points there KDS. Town missed several good chances, yet again Grandison (I think, could have been one of three players) missed a ball from 1 yard out that went over the bar. The shot near the end that Morgan took a second too long to prepare and shoot was also frustrating to see it stopped by their goalie.
if i again am being too critical someone please say. it appears to me 200 miles away that shrews after not too many convincing results, lie 2nd in the table thanks to a brilliant defence, an average modfield and either an unlucky attack or successively inept. now do not get me wrong town are in a brilliant position and hopefully with their run in, may well get auto promo. but something is nagging in the back of my mind that towns performances have been below par and our results have been rescued by goals from the back and midfield in short town have a strong excellent squad that is yet to fire on all cylinders. my view is that when they do , i would not like to be the opposition as when shrews do perform at their best, plymouth cheltenham etc will be blown out of the water. a very strong season for the shrews without too much up front. how have they achieved so much without the lads up front firing 'em in. someone wake me up when we are promoted. in the meantime well done the shrews and graham turner for achieving so much on a shrewsstring. floreat salopia, and sorry in advance if i am too critical
Yesterday we could have won by three or four. Their keeper made two excellent saves, and Collins had a brilliant bicycle kick cleared off the line instinctively (although we then scored from the resultant corner). I do think we'll need to put more chances to bed; if we are that profligate against bigger teams, they will punish us.
Well put case AJ. The defense when choice has been there has been excellent, the midfield is getting better with Richards and Wright making a solid left side and the strikers need some lava bread energy snacks to stop the pinking.
but on the plus side it shows how much strength we have in depth, and many of those in defence and midfield will i am sure make big waves in league 1, but we will definitely need 2or 3 strikers sparking up front, to complete our act. gt saw no need in january to add to the squad, but the next 11 games are the perfect opportunity for those up front and others to show us just what they are capable of. for some it may prove a novelty! floreat salopia
I think a sprinkling of quality in midfield and you might be surprised as to how the attack improves. It is worthwhile to note that our current team played very well against footballing teams from higher leagues. It is what happens in the league two teams that stops our style of football.
Some really good points made. We are generally not beating teams by 3 or 4 (or even 2) but our defence has been so solid we are usually quite comfortable with a one goal lead (especially at home). If that is the way it is going to be that will be good enough for me if we end up in the top three at the end of the season. With the run-in we have we have put ourselves in a great position to do that and we must give credit where credit is due to GT and the lads. It was not a given when he came back that he would bring success but the quality of the football and the careful squad building (allied with sound financial management) confirmed what most of us suspected - even at an age where many managers would be well past their sell-by date GT is still the best manager we have had since eerhm GT!
i agree last summer the shrews were on fire in pre season friendlies, carling and fa cups. sadly someone or thing has pissed on the fire, but hopefully town will start firing them in soon. a delicate word or two spoken softly in the right ear by uncle graham will work wonders. 3 points at plymouth and 3 more at home to cheltenham will have uncle rowland dusting the locks and clasps on his wallet in preperation for next season. he even has locks fitted to his hip flask. at least he has all his locks serviced and oiled by chubbs. floreat salopia
A bit harsh I think aj but there are some good points on this thread. Burton was a game we might have won by a bigger margin but their keeper did well and we took a while to get on top. McAllister again my MotM - I'm probably guilty of taking Richards for granted for being so consistently good and Wright ran him close this time. I might have voted for the excellent McLaughlin but only when Lenny spells his name right! A word in Sawyers' defence. It must be a bit different for loanees but I don't question his commitment. His playing style is very different to the usual L2 and that can look a bit casual when the game's frantic and the ball's up in the air as much as it was in the 1st half. He has class though and, if some fans don't crucify him for being inexperienced and off the pace, his composure and ability to play intelligent passes to the strikers' feet could be valuable. Back to aj - I know what you mean and I hope we can pick up our performances for the run in. We've looked a little jittery in defence lately - even on Saturday, comfortable as we were, Grandison got caught a little on the wrong side of his man once or twice (but has been outstanding this season) but Neal seemed more composed than of late. We've also forced our passing too often instead of playing it simple - probably a bit of anxiety creeping in. Nevertheless we're doing fine and we've had lots of memorable moments already, with more to come I'm sure. If we can overcome the nerves and play to our capabilities then I really think we can wrap up promotion before the last game or two. If not, it'll be more tense than ever. Either way, we shouldn't look over our shoulders but keep looking ahead and aim to catch Swindon - we're always better chasing than trying to hold a good position.
*coughB&Acough* He's been excellent this season though. He doesn't 100% fill me with confidence, but has made good saves, commanded his area and kicked well. I also wasn't at the Swindon game so haven't witnessed a real error from him this season. Smith on the other hand..
Smith was excellent for quite a while, then forgot he was a keeper and kept running 30 yards from the goal line to kick a ball...
I just remember Vale away. If Turner could fit him with a bungee rope tied to the posts, I'd still take him over Neal because he's a great shot stopper.
