Shrews’ blues are lifted by red-hot AJ
REVITALISED striker AJ Leitch-Smith’s fourth goal in a week helped extend new manager Paul Hurst’s Shrewsbury honeymoon.
After finding the net in successive cup wins, the former Port Vale hitman was in just the right position in the 19th minute after Simon Eastwood fumbled a Louis Dodds shot onto the bar.
Substitute Shaun Whalley ran half the length of the pitch to add a second in the closing moments as Shrews climbed off the bottom of the table.
Hurst, now unbeaten in four league and cup games, said: “I was pleased with the cup wins but this was the real test.
“I’m feeling a lot different now to when Chris Maguire was lining up that late free-kick.
“I’m pleased mainly for the players but also the staff and the fans – their support for us towards the end felt a bit special. They got behind us just when we needed them.
“We rode a bit of luck when there was a big response from Oxford in the first 15 minutes of the second half. But their goalkeeper has made three or four outstanding saves.”
Eastwood badly mishandled a Dodds shot from 20 yards for the crucial opening goal but made four superb saves to twice deny Dodds in the first half and keep out skipper Adam El-Abd and Ivan Toney in the hectic closing stages.
His counterpart Mark Halstead also played a key part, saving instinctively and brilliantly from a Kane Hemmings header and then plunging to his left to keep out a Maguire free-kick during Oxford’s bombardment.
The Shrews merited the three points overall for a combination of a promising first-half display and their grit thereafter, yet the outcome was in doubt when Oxford won a freekick 30 yards from goal.
Maguire’s effort deflected into the path of Whalley who finished his exhausting run by dinking deftly over Eastwood.
Oxford manager Michael Appleton admitted: “We need to start winning or we will be in a dog fight over the next two or three months.
“Our back four were commanding but I was disappointed with our front six.
“Our second-half performance merited a point at least. We had a number of chances before conceding a second when we were chasing the game
“We will get back to basics but there’s enough talent and experience to turn this around. First and foremost our task is to stay in this league.”