Shrewsbury Town ratings: Who comes out on top?

It started with an opening-day win against Cheltenham Town, but it soon went downhill, leading to Matt Taylor losing his job after Christmas.

Paul Hurst came in as boss and kept Shrews up on the penultimate game of the season with a draw at Charlton but it was a disappointing.

There were 11 Shrewsbury players who featured more than 30 times throughout the campaign and we rated them over the season... here are their average marks out of 10.

Marko Marosi – 6.6

The Town number one had a superb season in between the posts. He made 43 appearances in the league, keeping 10 clean sheets.

The crucial wins against Port Vale and Carlisle were largely down to Marosi’s heroics in goal. The keeper has announced he is leaving the club at the end of his contract, and the Shropshire Star understands it is Rotherham, among others, who are leading the race for his signature.

He will be badly missed after a successful three-year stay in Shropshire that featured almost 150 appearances across all competitions.

Dan Udoh – 6.5

The striker ended the season as Shrewsbury’s leading scorer across all competition with 12 goals.

He was particularly good when Paul Hurst came in at the end of January. He managed seven of the 10 League One goals in the 16 appearances he made under the Salop head coach, looking like a different player.

Like Marosi, he is out of contract this summer, and it looks like he may move away from Shrews with their financial constraints.

Chey Dunkley – 6.4

The big defender, who joined in the summer of 2022, made his 100th appearance for the club in the final game of the season against Leyton Orient.

Dunkley was not as good as he was during his first season in Shropshire where he helped Shrewsbury to a 12th-placed League One finish, but he stood up in some tough moments as captain.

He signed for Chesterfield last week, bringing an end to his time at the Croud Meadow.

Carl Winchester – 6.4

A man who never gave anything less than 100 per cent. He joined Town at the start of the season after his loan the year before. He found himself playing at right wing-back under Matt Taylor due to the injury to Elliot Thorpe.

He moved into central midfield under Hurst and immediately looked much more at home. Winchester will be relatively pleased with his season, even though it was tough year for his team.

Morgan Feeney – 6.3

A pretty solid first season for Feeney, who joined after leaving Carlisle..

He played on the right side of the back three or at right-back when Hurst came in. He was fairly solid and reliable and will be pretty pleased with his debut season in blue and amber.

Jordan Shipley – 6.2

An injury-hit campaign for Shipley. The winger picked up a knee problem away at Fleetwood early on and was out for three months.

Upon his return, he regularly showed his quality, scoring some really good goals, including a couple of brilliant volleys from smartly-worked corners.

On occasion, he would go missing in games but on the whole, he was good. He ended up with six goals from 33 appearances.

Elliott Bennett – 6.2

Bennett was due to start the first game of the season against Cheltenham at right wing-back until he was ruled out through illness. He struggled to regain his place in the side and was used more off the bench than from the start.

When Shrewsbury were really up against it against Bolton and Charlton at the end of the season he stood tall and produced two exceptional performances to help Town keep their League One status.

Mal Benning – 6.2

The wing-back, who joined in the summer, struggled to adapt to life in Shropshire early on.

Up to Christmas, he struggled to get regular game time. But he was without doubt one of Shrewsbury’s best players in 2024.

A testament to his turnaround in form almost made him one of the first names in the starting XI during the second half of the season, producing consistent displays at either left-back or wing-back in the absence of George Nurse.

Taylor Perry – 6.1

The midfielder is clearly a talented footballer, and he made a decent start to life at Shrewsbury. But he fell out of favour when Hurst came in and found himself out of the squad at certain points.

There were moments he produced really good performances, but he will need a little bit more end product heading into next season. The positive sign was that he got himself into a position to miss.

Tom Bayliss – 5.9

The midfielder had a good debut year at Salop but was unable to back that up this campaign.

He made 35 appearances, but struggled to make any real impact on games and was released at the end of the season.

On his day, Bayliss is a technically-gifted footballer, but too often he went missing when Salop were in a dog fight.

Ryan Bowman – 5.7

The highlight for Bowman would have been his FA Cup hat-trick against Notts County, but aside from that, he made little impact.

He was made vice-captain by Matt Taylor, but after an initial improvement in performances, his form dipped.

The striker has an eye for a goal, but his all-round play is not up to the standard required.