Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury win can put Town up with big boys
At the beginning of the season Shrewsbury fans would look at the back-to-back home fixtures this week and think they are very tough.
I know tomorrow’s visitors Oxford aren’t playing anywhere near as they have in recent years, but they still have good players. Town have done well against sides below them this term, they will hope to continue that.
Barnsley, down from the Championship, are always going to be a stern test. Three home games in a week is a positive for the players after all that travelling recently to Plymouth and Portsmouth.
The Meadow form has been very good this year. Yes, it was a defeat to Charlton last time out, but they had won a few games prior to that, it’s becoming a bit more of a fortress – win at home and pick up points on the road.
It is a chance to go and put a real marker down in front of the home crowd tomorrow night.
It is a huge opportunity to move up the table. Town can climb to eighth from 14th with a win tomorrow as it’s the only midweek fixture.
That can be a real motivation for Steve Cotterill and his players. It’s all to play for. Four or six points would put the team right in contention, which would be immense.
Players should look at the table and see where they could get. Once you get in and around the top half and play-offs it can be so exciting.
If Town win tomorrow the teams sitting above them are Plymouth, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Bolton and Derby, mostly ex-Premier League.
With Barnsley and Bolton below, they could be among some huge clubs.
All in all, it was a satisfying FA Cup weekend because we are in the hat for round two – and everyone knows the riches that could come down the line. They’ve had such a good run in recent years, it’s a bit of a lifeline when you can make prize money like that in difficult times, and it’s great for players and fans to face Championship or even hopefully Premier League opposition.
I remember Sam Ricketts and Cotterill saying that it does not matter how you get there, but the third round is such a great occasion and helps the club so much.
The manager got the job done after putting out a strong team and probably one of his only frustrations will be that it didn’t end up five, six or seven! After watching extended highlights and speaking to fans there it looked like an opportunity missed, certainly for the home strikers involved.
None of our strikers have scored a lot of goals this year – a lot of goals have come from deeper – but if you were Rekeil Pyke or Christian Saydee before the game you may feel a real chance to get a couple of goals. Then Bowman and Bloxham coming on they’d have been desperate to get on the end of something.
Pyke had a good chance, Saydee did, Rob Street and Luke Leahy, so it’s not like there was little created. Town’s first goal was excellent, that combination between Tom Bayliss and Jordan Shipley paying off again.
I think if John Askey’s York hadn’t reacted so quickly to Town’s second it would have been a win by a bigger margin.
It was a good day with the exception of Carl Winchester picking up an injury, I hope that’s nothing serious as he has played his way in and done well. The manager will be looking at that treatment room and won’t be particularly happy with how many are there, hopefully some are back before long.
