It’s win or bust for Shrewsbury
SHREWSBURY must beat Streetly at home on Saturday to have any chance of escaping the bottom two in Midlands Two – and even then it might not be enough to keep them up, writes Stuart Dunn.
The Roman Road Sports Centre side’s tough season continued with a 5-1 defeat at fifth-placed Chesterfield last weekend as they struggled to contain an attack spearheaded by prolific Poland international striker Damian Jarzembowski.
The defeat, Shrewsbury’s 14th in 19 league matches this season, leaves them still bottom of the table and seven points behind third-bottom Streetly, this Saturday’s opposition, with just three games remaining.
Shrewsbury expect the bottom two clubs to be relegated, perhaps even the bottom three, so the prospects of them still being a Midlands Two club next season are rapidly diminishing.
Utility man JP Turford, who hopes to have recovered from a shin injury to return to face Streetly, said: “It will be another key game for us and we need a win to keep us going.
“We’re still in there fighting but we know it’s going to be tough now.
“We apparently played well in spells once again at Chesterfield in what we always knew would be a good game against a good side with a very good striker in their Polish player.
“We were again missing some key personnel and that really sums up our season.”
An Ed Minter goal was Shrewsbury’s only reward on another testing day in Derbyshire.
Apart from the anticipated return of Turford, defender Andy Bulmer should also be back in Shrewsbury’s selection plans for the weekend.
“Hopefully we should be back to somewhere near full strength,” added Turford. “It’s been really annoying not to be able to play in recent weeks.”
At the other end of the table, TELFORD & WREKIN have their destiny in their own hands after a 3-1 win at Streetly saw them go second.
Some crucial saves from stand-in goalkeeper Neil Davies, promoted from the second team with Chris Kelly working, kept the score goalless early on.
Top scorer Dave Tracey opened the scoring with a smart finish only for Telford to concede minutes later on a counter-attack.
Some changes at the break for Telford stopped Streetly from creating chances and saw a period of dominance for the away side. A fast start after half-time led to multiple chances for the forwards and it was Michael Cooper who made the score 2-1 which was followed by a wonderful solo effort by Alex Johnson.
Telford, who have won all their home games since the opening day of the season, entertain league leaders Hampton-in-Arden on Saturday (1.30pm).
