SHREWD WORK
An in-depth look at Shrewsbury Town’s remarkable campaign
THE only way most people thought Shrewsbury would be leaving League One this season was by the trapdoor.
Written off in most quarters as relegation fodder, the New Meadow side have been one of the stories of the season, flying high in League One all year.
Though they lost 3-1 at fastimproving Blackburn last Saturday, the Shrews still went into this weekend in second place, three points behind frontrunners Wigan and two head of Tony Mowbray’s Rovers.
Yesterday’s home match against Doncaster promised to be another stern examination of their resolve, coming on the back of their painful FA Cup exit against West Ham at the London Stadium in midweek.
Donny boss Darren Ferguson was no doubt delighted the tie went to extra-time as Shrewsbury’s players had to play 120 minutes of gruelling Cup football.
It didn’t even have a happy ending for the Shrews. Hammers centre-back Reece Burke, 21 – who had been on loan at Bolton in the first half of the season – smashed home a 112th-minute winner off the underside of the bar as Salop were punished for one of the only times they failed to clear their lines all evening.
Yet, amid that disappointment and a late night journey back to Shropshire, the players could be proud of their performances.
And it gave another example of the quiet revolution being masterminded by unassuming manager Paul Hurst.
Barring a loan spell with Burton in his last year as a player, the 5ft 5in left-back spent his whole career with Rotherham, making almost 500 appearances for the Millers.
He has also served his apprenticeship as a manager. After working as a joint boss with Rob Scott at Ilkeston Town, Boston United and Grimsby, Hurst eventually branched out on his own at the latter and guided the Mariners back into the EFL in 2016.
When Shrewsbury, League One’s bottom club, came calling in October 2016, Hurst stepped up another division. The gamble paid off as he kept the Shrews up – they finished 18th last season – and this term they have gone from strength to strength. It’s clear a solid defensive base is one of Shrewsbury’s main virtues. Heading into the weekend, they had scored 34 goals in 26 League One games, but conceded a miserly 18. Against the Hammers, Hurst started with a back three of Toto Nsiala, 25, Mat Sadler, 32, and Omar Beckles, 26. The experienced Sadler sat in the middle and didn’t put a foot wrong, the powerful Nsiala, who played under Hurst at Grimsby, put some strong challenges in and the athletic Beckles proved his versatility. The ex-Aldershot and Accrington man played centre-back, right-back and left-back, as the Shrews switched to a flat back four.
Goalkeeper Dean Henderson, 20 – on loan from Manchester United – had a solid game between the sticks, while the central midfield duo of skipper Abu Ogogo, 28, and Ben Godfrey, 20 – on loan from Norwich – worked their socks off all night.
The Shrews put in a very disciplined performance and it was clear that everyone knew exactly what their role was.
Prowess
Wide players Jon Nolan, 25 – who looked comfortable on the ball – and Shaun Whalley, 30, provided the main creative spark, while Stefan Payne, 26, worked tirelessly as a lone raider up front.
It was such a shame the former Barnsley man couldn’t get the better of former Shrewsbury keeper Joe Hart in a second-half one-on-one that could have given the visitors a shock lead.
Yet it was a measure of Shrewsbury’s defensive prowess that West Ham failed to score against them in 90 minutes on two occasions.
Gaps started to open up as the League One side tired in extra-time. Hurst put that down to the way Premier League sides look after the ball better as Godfrey and sub James Bolton cleared off the line from sub Mark Noble and the diminutive Manuel Lanzini respectively, before David Moyes’ men finally broke the deadlock.
“I’d have rather lost to maybe a Lanzini or (Marko) Arnautovic curling one in th top corner than the type of go we conceded,” said a disa pointed Hurst afterwards.
“The players can be proud themselves, but we’re in a industry where you win or yo lose, and we’ve lost tonight. W want to win, so no matter ho proud you are, there’s an el ment of disappointmen particularly with how we lost
“That’s my frustration with all after such a massive effor That’s one competition we’ out of, two left (Shewsbury ho Oldham in the Checkatra Trophy quarter-finals on Tue day night) and the league certainly all to play for. We’re a great position with 20 gam left.”
hopes And his of the taking players down-to-earth on use West their Ham experience boss at the London Stadium to drive them to earn promotion to the Championship and play at other top-notch arenas. “From my point of view, you would love to bring a team to stadiums likes this as often as possible,” he said. “It should give them belief and confidence because we’ve gone toe to toe with West Ham. Not quite the full strength lineup, but they still had some very good players on show in both games, particularly tonight towards the end, and not looked totally out of place.
“There are things we need to improve on. There’s no doubt about that, but at the same time some of the players have shown they can really make a step up and that should bode well for the rest of the campaign in the league.”
Downplay
Asked by The FLP if he feared losing some of his stars in this transfer window, he quickly tried to downplay it.
“I don’t think anyone was that good tonight!” he smiled. “I don’t think I’d be buying any of our players.
“I think they like it at Shrewsbury Town. Every time January comes round as a manager, I feel like I’ve always had players who could make the step up, but, from our point of view, no one’s for sale.
“The chairman (Roland Wycherley) runs the club extremely well. It’s not like we need the cash, but there’s the phrase that everyone’s got their price.
“I’m not going to say that some of the players haven’t, but I think it would take extremely high bids to make anyone leave the football club.
“The players are very keen to try and continue the season that they’ve managed to do so well in, which has been a surprise to us all. “Nights like tonight show we can compete, and I think they’d like to see the job through or give it a go to see if we can cause an upset, if you like, in terms of our league form.” In fact, Hurst would like to add to his squad. “Conversations have been ongoing with that,” he added. “We haven’t generally got a big squad. I don’t want loads of players to work with. I like a tight-knit squad, but we certainly need a couple, probably more attacking options than anything, to help the players that we have got.” Whether he can uncover one or two more gems in the market this month, Hurst and his unfancied Shrewsbury team have already proved the doubters wrong this season. Many will hope the fairytale – unlike at the London Stadium – has a happy ending.