Bernard McNally: Shrewsbury Town's heroics at Rotherham caught up with them

I was speaking to a friend before Shrewsbury’s clash at Bury on Tuesday night and I said I would be very surprised if they beat us, writes Bernard McNally.

Potentially I felt there was a chance the game could have ended in a draw.

But football has a way of making us look like idiots and, low-and-behold, the team at the bottom of League One beat the team sitting at the top.

Paul Hurst’s side under-performed on the night. But in hindsight, there was always a danger of that happening following their heroics at Rotherham on Saturday.

The Millers are one of the strongest teams in League One and have scored an awful lot of goals this season.

Character

So when Abu Ogogo was sent off and Rotherham then equalised to make it 1-1 in the 76th minute – I thought if Town held on for a point it would be a great result.

But we have seen many times this season, this side has so much fight and character.

And when Stefan Payne popped up with that late winner we were all overjoyed.

That adulation, though, comes at a cost, it’s very tiring. And I think the Bury game arrived just a bit too soon – the players hadn’t fully recharged their batteries.

And the one thing you can’t do is get a little complacent because you are facing the team bottom of the division.

The moment you do that you are in trouble.

It was a below par performance from what we have become accustomed too this year.

But they are still top of the league and they now have a chance to bounce back against Bradford on Saturday.

It’s going to be a tough game, the Bantams are currently fifth in the table and are eyeing up one of those two automatic promotion slots.

They are a good side with a big budget. But you have to go back to April for when Shrewsbury last lost a league game at home.

And what’s great for the supporters is that they can head to the Montgomery Waters Meadow Stadium on Saturday knowing they have a very good chance of winning the game.

There is a real sense of anticipation surrounding the club at the minute which is great to see.

Bradford is going to be a real test. But Shrewsbury will be a real test for Bradford.

And I think it’s going to be a tight game that one of the teams will win either 1-0 or 2-1.

Whatever the score though, this season is turning out to be a fantastic.

And with the side Hurst has built, I’m sure that is going to continue.

I just hope they can maintain it and get us up to the Championship just like the team we had in 1979.

That really would be magnificent.