Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury finally put together the perfect away performance

The home form has been so good, so getting the elusive away win felt like the final box to tick off – and it came in style as well.

It’s not like the away performances have been overly terrible – although they haven’t been great – but it’s the results that have hampered Shrewsbury’s progress up the table.

So it’s nice to see it all come together, and doing it in emphatic style with a 3-0 win with an elusive clean sheet.

They’ll be disappointed with the last away game at Doncaster, but they turned it around against Cheltenham and now the Fleetwood result.

It’s important to beat the teams around you, more so than the top teams, because you’re taking points off others and it will affect your league position.

Shrewsbury at the moment, with the way they’re playing, don’t look like a team that should be in trouble.

I’m not saying they look like a team that will be at the top end of the table, but the performances of late warrant a team that will be more comfortable around mid-table.

They will have to grind to get back up to that position and January will be massive, but with Ethan Ebanks-Landell back in the starting line-up I think that is the strongest starting XI Shrewsbury have got. Steve Cotterill will be happy to get those important players and strong spine on the pitch.

The clean sheet will do them the world of good but they have some confidence going forward too, particularly with the two strikers.

They have missed Ryan Bowman in recent weeks but to get him back and starting is massive, and I’m running out of superlatives for Dan Udoh.

I’m so happy for him, knowing him as a person and how hard he’s worked – my column will start sounding like the Dan Udoh column because I’m his biggest fan!

But he deserves it. It was his ninth goal of the season, but it’s not just his goals it’s his all-round performance.

The goals are the reward he deserves for his work-rate off the ball and, more recently, on the ball with the way he holds it up and turns defence into attack.

He’s a constant thorn in the opposition’s defence and he scored a world class goal. A thunderous left-foot shot into the top corner.

He also set up Josh Vela’s goal with his hard work, he’s in unbelievable form.

Ryan Bowman alongside him is the fox in the box who gets into the right place at the right time.

He did it again on Boxing Day for a really well-worked goal, starting with a great pass from Luke Leahy.

Bowman and Udoh compliment each other well and are both physical. It works well because Bowman is allowed to stay more down the centre with Dan down the channels.

He can get into the right positions because of Dan’s work rate down the channels. It also benefits Dan because he can pick up positions that are hard to mark. He has really flourished this season.

Nathanael Ogbeta is getting back to his best, too, and looks confident in a Shrewsbury shirt.

In midfield, having Dave Davis back takes the reins off Josh Vela, who I feel is the best player in this Shrewsbury squad.

But having Dave Davis behind him allows him to maraud over the pitch and run with the ball. He’s tenacious and fully deserved his goal.

There were top performances all round.