Shrewsbury Town - Half term report

The Highs

Town's highs of a thus far frustrating season has unquestionably been the home form of late.

Heading into Christmas, Steve Cotterill's men have taken 13 points from the last 15 on offer at Montgomery Waters Meadow. Cambridge, Sunderland, Charlton and Cheltenham have all struggled as Shrews have impressed the supporters who had hoped to have reasons to cheer on their return to watching live action.

Shrewsbury's home form ranks 10th in League One heading into the festive period. Cotterill's men were able to turn things around following a tricky couple of early results on their own patch, but issues still need addressing on the road.

The Lows

The away record.

Town's winless run on their travels in league action is an extremely disappointing one. It is up there with one of the poorer runs of away form in the club's history.

There is not much dressing it up. Not only have Cotterill's men failed to win any of their 11 away matches before the Boxing Day outing at fellow lowly side Fleetwood, they have also drawn just twice – that adds up to a total of just two points collected from a possible 33.

Salop have not been subject to a real hammering on the road, but some of the defeats, including at Morecambe, Accrington, Oxford and Doncaster, have been difficult to take for the ardent travelling support.

Star performer

There have been a couple to have come up trumps of late as Cotterill's side have turned a corner – certainly on home patch – over the last six to eight weeks.

Strikers Daniel Udoh and Ryan Bowman, who have nine goals each in all competitions, have spearheaded the improvement in results. George Nurse and Matt Pennington have been reasonably consistent in defence.

But, without doubt, Town's star performer of the first four or five months of this season has been Luke Leahy.

The summer recruit from Bristol Rovers arrived off the back of a League One relegation and, despite needing a few games to convince Town fans of his quality, quickly came to the fore.

Whether operating at left wing-back, central midfield or most recently in the heart of a back three, the versatile Leahy has performed excellently.

His form has not gone unnoticed, with supporters twice voting him fans' player of the month. He is an early shoo-in for player of the season.

What needs to improve

There is the base of a good League One squad at the Meadow, something most fans would agree on. But Cotterill will need to improve his ranks in the new year. There are leftover funds available in the budget, as well as FA Cup prize and broadcast money, to do so.

The January transfer window is one of the most important the club has faced for a number of seasons in their bid to climb clear of very real relegation threat. They are just two points clear of the drop zone heading into Christmas.

The manager ending the summer window having missed out on targets in a couple of positions – right wing-back and in midfield – and has since been on the hunt for targets with head of recruitment Keith Burt.

The likelihood is that Cotterill will still want to add depth to those particular areas, where his side have been left short this season due to injury and suspension issues hitting already thin numbers.

As an addition, the club's two loan signings, Khanya Leshabela and Sam Cosgrove, the midfielder and striker from Leicester and Birmingham respectively, have not worked out and are likely to return.

While Leshabela was a more affordable squad options to cover midfield numbers, Cosgrove in particular is a summer addition who has failed to get going at all in Shropshire.

Despite two early goals, he has started just eight times and for a striker handed the No.9 shirt on what is understood to be a not insignificant wage fee, the output has not been nearly enough.

The spaces vacated in the squad and budget if the pair return will, one would imagine, require filling. It will be interesting to see whether Cotterill returns to the loan market, something used sporadically in the summer. Loan moves served Town very well this time last year, in his first window at the club, when Pennington and Harry Chapman came in from Everton and Blackburn.

Target for the season

While Town went into the campaign wanting to improve on recent efforts of scraping away from the bottom four, the immediate aim after an underwhelming first half of the season will be to achieve the same.

That has to be the number one priority – to ensure Town's seven-year stay in the third tier does not come to an end, undoing lots of hard work.

But it does not have to be the ceiling to what can be achieved.

As often seems the case, the table is a tight thing and as a couple of sides have already shown this season, a couple of positive results on the spin can soon lift you a number of cases.

But the same can be said for defeats in a row. Winning games consistently is far from straight-forward. Back-to-back league wins have still evaded Shrewsbury this season, so an unbeaten run including regular wins has to be the target to lift Town away from the danger zone.

With the necessary January additions, they will have more than enough to steer clear.

Lewis Cox's predicted league finish

16th