Bernard McNally: Beat Scunthorpe and Shrewsbury Town are almost safe
It was a must-win game for Shrewsbury at Southend last weekend.
They got the job done. And now they face another must-win clash when Scunthorpe visit Montgomery Waters Meadow on Saturday.
Win this game and Town have a fantastic chance of being a League One side next season.
It is all in their own hands and I believe they will get the job done sooner rather than later.
The battle to stay in League One really is fascinating this year.
There are so many teams still involved. But what’s really interesting is that they all seem to be playing each other over the next few weeks.
There are going to be a lot of games where the players head into them with real trepidation.
They are going to be scared to lose. They will play with fear. And I think that is to Shrewsbury’s advantage.
The victory at Roots Hall was a crucial one for two reasons.
Firstly, Shrewsbury didn’t want to be the side beaten by the Shrimpers because they have been on a dreadful run.
Those games can be real banana skins.
But the win was also important because it saw us rocket up the league.
Shrewsbury are now 15th and there are five teams between them and the bottom four.
They have a little bit of a cushion and they can now really attack this game with Scunthorpe.
They need to believe in themselves, express themselves and have everyone sticking together.
Mistakes will happen, because that is football. But if anyone makes a mistake they have to rectify it as quickly as possible.
And when it’s the last minute, if you have got a man to track – you have to make sure you run back and don’t allow your man to score a goal.
Everyone has to switch on. And they have to think if we are going to concede, it’s not going to be from my mistake. If everyone buys into that, Shrewsbury will get over the line because they have quality.
Shaun Whalley and Greg Docherty, in particular, are class acts.
And with those two playing every week, Town will create chances and score goals.
I think with the way the league is, they need two more wins to guarantee safety. And hopefully the first one those will come against the Iron on Saturday.
They are not in great form, they have lost five of their last six.
And I’m expecting a big crowd on Saturday. The safe standing section is already sold out.
And I’m sure they will create lots of noise to help the team ont o victory.
If we can build some momentum and get back-to-back wins then survival will be within touching distance.
And it would be fantastic to get that win on Saturday to take the pressure off us and really pile it on to everybody else.
