We're not going up. We're not going up.

First of all the positives. Despite what some on B and A say we have had a great season. 87 points in League 1 must be our best haul in many a year. In the first half of the season we saw great pressing and passing quality, resolute defending and some exciting last ditch winners. In the second half of the season we have been about mid table on form due to being unable to keep up the pressing on heavy pitches and,let's face it, the other teams have taken us more seroiusly and rumbled our counter-attacking style. However, overall all credit to Hurst and Doig for doing what many of us have been saying for years - identifying players from lower leagues and giving them their chance and also improving some of the better players they inherited.
With hindsight the crucial point was the failure to land an established striker in January. I do not blame the manager for this - no doubt he tried and these things are always more difficult than we supporters think. The last few home games have just demonstrated how awful we are in the box even when decent crosses are coming in.
Let's be realistic about the play-offs. We go into them as the team in the worst form and we often underperform in these live TV games anyway. I do not buy this talk about them being a lottery. I would rather go in with a team in winning form and confident than what we have at the moment. We are not likely to get past the semis but there is an up side in that failure could well mean we keep Hurst. This season will not have been in vain - all I wanted from it was for us to establish ourselves in League 1 and we have done that and more.

 

I was pessimistic back in October about promotion and recent weeks have shown a lack of commitment/confidence up front. Hopefully we see a more spirited performance in the two games coming up that revive a hope that we can beat another team.

I'd like to see Payne start over Morris up front as a start to that.

 

too many players were reluctant to shoot today ,Morris had three chances were he could have shoot but passed instead , Lowe was on the edge of the box with a good chance and did not shoot, Eisa went down the line and put three daisy cutter cross back to the box not one player took a punt.
i suspect the chip the defenders to put the ball behind the defenders was something off the training ground unfortunately either the chips were to hard and went to far or Morris failed to anticipate them .
the best shoot came from a solo effort by Eisa near the end of the first half .who do we play up front , Morris who cant buy a goal or Payne . for whatever reason the failure to get a forward in January may prove very expensive.

 

Agree with you both - the worrying thing is not the missing of chances but the fact that the forwards and midfielders are not in the right positions when the balls come in or they are not prepared to shoot. I think the defence will have to be on top form for us to make any impression in the semis as we did not have a shot on target against Charlton a few weeks ago and the magnificent performance at the Valley in February now seems a distant memory.

 

Ventured over here to get some thoughts from any Shrews as what you lot think of Hurst? Being an Ipswich fan he's been spoken about quite a lot in the past week and although I've watched your lot a couple of times (and been impressed) I cant confess to know much about style of play etc.

Also, how likely do you think it is that he'd leave? He seemed reluctant to rule himself out of the running to join us and from everything I've seen and heard would be a pretty logical choice as our next manager. Able to galvanise an inexpensively assembled squad, giving youngsters a chance and playing a functional style with the added bonus of encouraging a more possession based approach to that we were were used to with McCarthy.

 

Sad to see him go if he does. Worked some magic at Salop, revived some players who looked like they were off, brought in some gems. However also brought in a few players that haven't worked out too. Got annoyed with fans after Christmas due to negative vibe at a few matches, the team were not playing well but he ruffled some vocal fans.