Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury are battlers - goals are all they are short of
Town must maintain their performance levels after what has been a turbulent couple of months with injuries and results.
If they keep working hard on the training pitch and playing well then it will change – it is important their levels do not drop.
There were lots of positives in the second half, but it is a results industry, and the manager and the players will be unhappy they have not picked up more points in the last six games.
Even though, on the whole, they have deserved much more.
It was a nothing game in the first half at Hillsborough – Town did what we know they can do as a minimum, which is stay in football matches. They are hard to beat, but they will be disappointed to concede from a set-piece.
To be trailing by a goal at the interval will have been a blow, even though they did not offer a lot in an attacking sense.
But it was a strong second-half showing – where they had enough good chances and created enough pressure to have got the equaliser.
You look at Matthew Pennington’s marauding run where he just put his shot round the post, and Luke Leahy had Town’s best chance where he will be disappointed in the middle of the goal to not put it in the back of the net.
Sheffield Wednesday was always going to be a tough place to go.
They seem to have clicked this year after not quite getting to where they should with the size of the club and the players they have. It was always going to be a big ask, they have good home form, and it was a big attendance of close to 25,000.
What we mustn’t overlook is the support Shrewsbury had in Yorkshire.
For Salop to take more than 1,000 fans is incredible with what is going on in the world.
The fans putting their hands in their pockets to support the team is brilliant, and it is something the players and the manager would have been very appreciative of.
And they very nearly gave them something to shout about.
Salop will be desperate for a goal to go in any which way at the moment.
But it would be worse if they were in games and not getting the chances. They can take confidence from the fact they are creating in most matches – it is just that final touch which is missing. In particular, the strikers could do with a goal.
It is the one thing they have been really lacking is a number nine who can go and score.
Christian Saydee has done so much good work in the build play and off the ball, but the goals have dried up for him.
No-one else has really chipped in, Ryan Bowman has a couple, but it is not like last year when you had Dan Udoh scoring goals.
That is where the injuries have really kicked in.
It is one area of the pitch where Steve Cotterill will look at and think we have not quite got that right so far – but the rest of the team looks strong and competitive – which is a positive sign going forwards.
I feel so sorry for the players, the manager and the staff to lose the players they have with injuries.
To lose Elliott Bennett for a lengthy spell will have a massive impact on that team – you see how comfortable he is on the ball because of his calmness and his quality.
