Mansfield v Shrewsbury: Town need to upset odds to kick start their season

Salop have faltered so far this season – taking three points from their opening six League One fixtures.

But the next game soon comes by, and each clash is an opportunity to pick up points.

Town’s fixtures have been a challenge so far this campaign but with the standard of the third tier of English football, that shows no sign of easing up.

“It has been a tough fixture list,” Paul Hurst said. “And that continues, it does not mean once we get through that tough period that it is suddenly going to be easy because it is not.

“There are different pressures attached, and they are still very much hard games.

“The reality is a lot of teams will look at us and think when we play Shrewsbury that is our opportunity to get three points. That is just the reality, we can pretend that it is not, but that is what people will be thinking.

“I think, for us, there will be some teams that you look at before you have kicked a ball as being the teams you have a better chance against.

“Ultimately, football is not played out on paper, or a computer, so at some point, we have got to get results against teams that we know are good – that is for sure.

“Other games might maybe eventually have added significance, but we are certainly not nowhere near that stage yet.

“I think you often find that in football (that there are leagues within a league), you almost have two-thirds of the league and then maybe a third, which might be stretching it slightly as it could be less than a third, that I think in terms of expectations think they are at that lower end.

“That is a reality. Now what you hope is you can be a team that surprises people, and there are always a couple of teams that come up short of their expectations, and there could be more because of the strength.

“Likewise, one or two people do surprise people.”

Mansfield are the second promoted side Salop face this season after they lost to Wrexham just two weeks ago.

They sit in eighth place in the table having won twice, drawn twice and lost once.

They were at home last Saturday as they beat Cambridge United, the division’s bottom side, 2-1 courtesy of a Lee Gregory brace.

His second goal, with 22 minutes of normal time remaining, was a beautiful curling strike from the edge of the penalty area.

Mansfield also signed Will Evans, born and raised in Oswestry, this summer. He has got the one goal so far this campaign in the 3-3 draw they had with Burton Albion back in August.

Town are still waiting to pick up their first point on the road this season.