We have a big game coming up this Saturday with Wigan visiting the Greenhous Meadow. We lost our last game away at Wigan and talking to some Wigan fans, they were shocked at how 'rough' to their players we were! Wigan have won 6 and drawn 4 of the last games. They're sitting second in the league with a GD of +30. Also this week their development squad beat Burton 8-1, this team featured 7 of the first team squad with Vuckic scoring a hat-trick and Jacobs returning from injury also scoring. However Rochdale only lost 1-0 to Wigan, so there is some room for Town giving them a game. The last time Town beat Wigan was in the Auto Windscreens Shield in 1997, where we won 1-0. Shrewsbury have added to their defensive woes with NKP being red carded at the end of the PV game, Hendry won't be able to play as he is on loan from Wigan. Hopefully we will have both Smith and Grandison available in CD, Whitbread is most probably still out injured for this game. So that leaves the bench having Sadler and possibly Tootle or less likely Demetriou on it. The squad format will most likely be based on the squad from last week, although we looked far better after the substitutions were made. Hopefully town can play an attractive game of footy whilst pressing the opposition early on to stop them in their tracks. Let's hope for an enjoyable game where we get some points to help secure our status. Floreat Salopia Previews when they get populated: http://www.shrewsburytown.com/fixtures-results/match-preview/index.aspx?matchid=3834437 http://www.skysports.com/football/shrewsbury-vs-wigan/340561
Good post Matster. From what MM says it looks like Whitbread is available so surely we will start with him and Grandison. Smith might come in if we are playing three at the back but it is probably best to start with 4-4-2. Wigan look to have the strongest squad in this league and I would be happy with a point from this but, with Kaikai on form, who knows? Talking of Kaikai I would like to see him playing down the middle off the front man as he seems our only player capable of finding the net at the moment.
It'd be interesting to see Kaikai in a forward position rather than stuck on the wing. He definitely is more effective in a more forward role as was seen last Saturday.
I think you could call that a bad day at the office. Clearly Wigan have a side full of Championship players but there was no hint of the mauling to come during the first hour. We have been quite resilient lately so it was a bit alarming the way we shot ourselves in the foot with basic errors and folded so tamely in the last half hour. The whole feature of this season has been the way that many of our more experienced players have let us down (with NKPs ridiculous red card against Port Vale, Grandison's and Whitbread's lamentable defending and Wellens lack of impact yesterday being the most recent examples). There are still problems up front with us being solely reliant on Kaikai to produce something. Lets hope we can recover from this and get the six points we need quickly as there is major surgery needed on our squad. I reckon we have five (maybe six if Weso comes back fit) players capable of putting in consistently good performances in this league. That is not a lot but it gets even worse as two of them are on loan and unlikely to be back with us next year. Over to you MM - we live in hope.
I think Grandison would not have started if NKP was available, I also doubt he'll be with he next season. He works best as the middle of a back three cb with more mobile players around him. Yet again we get done over by poor back passes to our keeper or to a defender. Why is it when other teams go down to ten men we never seem to be able to cope with it and say its always hard playing against them, yet when we go down to ten men we don't get the ball until the keeper picks it up. Perhaps it shows weakness in our remaining players. Onwards to milwall and hopefully some points.
I agree Matster about Grandison _ I have probably been a bit unfair on him since he has never really had his full fitness this year. I doubt if he or Akpro (or Sadler or Tootle or Demetriou and numerous others) will be with us next season. There has been worrying signs of revival from some of the teams below us (though I think Doncaster, Crewe and Colchester will go down) but hopefully we can scrape enough points to get over the line and then the recruitment in the summer will be vital.
Yes KDS but fringe players will usually get the message and move on if they can or come to an early settlement. They are of course quite entitled to sit out their contracts and wait for a chance if that is forthcoming but most prefer to be playing even if it in a lower league. In Tootle's case I do not think we will ever hear the true story about what has gone on.