Shrewsbury v Leyton Orient: Salop aim for a winning send-off before departures

Leyton Orient are the visitors to Shropshire as Shrewsbury lay to rest what has been a challenging season both on and off the football pitch.

But the most pleasing thing of all is the fact Town cannot be relegated. They can head into this clash with no pressure on them after securing a couple of brilliant points last week at Bolton and Charlton to ensure survival.

It was a good job, too, after Cheltenham earned a 2-0 win in midweek against Peterborough.

They now face a battle with Burton for who will be in the final relegation place. They play Stevenage whereas the Brewers make the trip to Lancashire to take on Fleetwood – a win for them will be enough to see them stay up.

The questions around Salop at the moment are ones about the future.

There has been discussion around the future of Dan Udoh – the club’s leading goalscorer – whose contract at Shrewsbury is set to run out this summer.

He has said he wants to stay at the Croud Meadow and that the decision is with the club.

There are other big decisions to make. Elliott Bennett, Tom Flanagan, Harry Burgoyne and Ryan Bowman are a few of the other squad members who are out of contract.

So it feels like it is set to be a strange afternoon where several Shrewsbury players will no doubt wear the blue and amber colours for the final time. Paul Hurst even said that himself after the Charlton game ‘change is inevitable’.

Many fans will be glad to see the back of this season with the hope of something more exciting coming up in 2024/25.

The challenge is League One looks set to be an incredibly difficult league next year, but there is some comfort to take from Hurst leading them.

Perhaps they can take some sort of inspiration from Orient – a side who beat Town 1-0 earlier in the season in the reverse fixture.

They came up from League Two last season and, like Northampton, they have competed well in a poor division and if they can get a result in Shropshire they could confirm a top-half finish.

They are not in great form though. They have lost four out of the last six, including losing 1-0 at home to already relegated Fleetwood last time out.

What will Hurst do with his starting XI? Well, that is a tough question to answer.

After two brilliant performances, you would expect him to keep it the same but it feels as though any normality is now out the window with the circumstances around the final game.

It has been hard going at times this campaign, but Shrews will want to finish on a positive note.