Shrewsbury vs Morecambe - Match preview
Shrewsbury Town leading goalscorers Ryan Bowman and Daniel Udoh will keep their goal targets private as the season’s finale draws near.
Salop welcome Morecambe this evening in a key fixture at the wrong end of the League One table with Bowman and Udoh set to lead the line in search of the goals to put further daylight between themselves and the strugglers.
The Shrimps have changed manager since the clash was initially due to be played last month as Stephen Robinson left for St Mirren and promotion-winning Derek Adams made a return.
Bowman trails partner Udoh by a single goal in Town’s leading scorer stakes after the former Exeter man made it 10 goals for the season by ending a barren run against Oxford in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat.
His strike ended a drought stretching back to Boxing Day but Bowman, 30, says he and top scorer Udoh have figures in mind prior to the curtain closer on April 30.
“Funnily enough me and Dan have got our own private one, with nine games left we’ve set our own targets for each other,” said Bowman.
“But we’ll keep those to ourselves, it’s something for me and Dan to go off.
“It’s that round number 10, isn’t it? It’s what a lot of people set themselves, (targets of) 10 or 15, but you don’t think of it like that. You go into every game trying to score and when I’ve gone two months without a goal it can play on your mind but the manager’s always had my back, said there’s more to my game than just goals, which fills me with confidence straight away.
“But obviously if you add goals to your game it’s massive.”
Bowman and former AFC Telford frontman Udoh are in a race to land Town’s top scorer gong and look to extend their tallies against a struggling Morecambe side 22nd in the table and without a win in 10 games.
Asked about the leading scorer race, he replied: “Of course! You always want that wherever you are, but if we score goals and we keep winning games then I’ll have no complaints where I finish.
“Obviously you want to score as many as you can and be the top scorer, but if not and we’re winning games, then so be it.”
Bowman ended his run without a goal with a fine first-time finish to equalise against the U’s. He might have equalled Udoh’s total but a big chance at 1-1 flew over the crossbar – Bowman revealed via the fingertips of keeper Simon Eastwood, who told the striker it was the best save of his lengthy career.
“It was more of a relief than anything,” Bowman said of his goal. “I was delighted to get a goal but we didn’t get anything from the game.
“So I’d have taken another game without a goal to get us something from the game, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
