Leon Clarke: Shrewsbury Town winner felt as good as my first
Match-winning hero Leon Clarke admitted his dramatic late Shrewsbury Town winner felt as good as his first career goal.
The 35-year-old centre-forward opened his Shrewsbury account in style with a 91st-minute winner at Loftus Road against AFC Wimbledon.
The diving header, against the run of play as Sam Ricketts criticised his team’s poor performance, earned Town a first League One win of the season at the fifth time of asking.
It was the 152nd goal of Clarke’s prolific career. The first came playing for Wolves in a 2-2 Molineux draw against Preston in August 2004.
“Obviously it would’ve been nice if fans were there, but we all understand the situation the whole world’s going through,” said Shrewsbury goalscorer Clarke.
“A goal is a goal for a striker, you celebrate the same way if there was fans there or without – you could see how happy I was.
“I celebrated it like it was my first goal. Strikers are judged on goals, so for me to get my first for Shrewsbury is nice and hopefully I can get many more and help the team do well.”
AFC Wimbledon had been knocking at the Shrewsbury door for much of the contest with the visitors struggling to muster much of note going forward.
But Clarke, who arrived on a free transfer last month after leaving Premier League Sheffield United, arrived right on time at the back post to make the difference.
Town boss Ricketts admitted the late match-winner actually went against Town’s set-piece plans to shift into a different position for his timely finish.
“The biggest thing with Clarky, I was just asked him ‘why did you end up there?’ He wasn’t where he was supposed to be from the corner,” Ricketts said.
“He said we’d had a few corners and he wanted to change it up and do something different and he scores at the back post.”
Clarke explained: “I wasn’t in the position I was supposed to be, but I gambled and went somewhere different and it paid off. I was in the right place at the right time and luckily enough it went in.”
Shrewsbury, who were minutes from becoming the only third tier side yet to win this season, climb to 16th with their maiden victory.
Ricketts was critical of his team’s performance. He said: “We were poor. No argument, that’s the first time this season and for a long time I can say we didn’t move the ball, pass it, our touch was poor, everything was poor.”
Town are straight back into action tomorrow evening when they welcome in-form Bristol Rovers to Montgomery Waters Meadow as a relentless fixture schedule takes hold.
Struggling Rochdale, who are second-bottom, then visit Shrewsbury on Saturday.
Clarke played just a little over 30 minutes of Premier League action for the Blades last season before a period of training at Shrewsbury persuaded him to sign a Salop deal.
He added: “We spoke before the game that there has to be a point we really have to kick on and grind out some results whether we’re playing good, bad, we need to string some results together to push on and achieve something this season.
“We didn’t play great, we weren’t at our best for the majority and can do a lot better but hopefully the three points gives everyone a lot of confidence.”
Town winger Shaun Whalley missed the trip to AFC Wimbledon with a calf injury and is unlikely to return for tomorrow’s visit of The Gas.
There could be better news on the injury front in the right-back department for Town, as Marlon Fossey and Matt Millar both missed the Loftus Road contest with knocks but at least one could return.
