Simon Evitts: Shrewsbury up for survival battle
Shrewsbury player/coach Simon Evitts has vowed his side won’t throw in the towel as they chase a great escape in Midlands 2 West (North).
The Sundorne Castle men are bottom of the table and suffered their 12 defeat of the season on Saturday when they went down 46-17 at home to champions elect Wolverhampton.
But Evitts was encouraged by another show of huge commitment from his side and is adamant there is still a chance his men could win their battle for survival.
And he highlighted Stafford’s late surge to safety last season as an example of what is possible.
“It’s been a tough season and some sides would have imploded,” said Evitts. “But we haven’t and that is testament to the players and their attitude.
“They are training really hard, batting in every game and no one is going to throw the towel in.
“Stafford managed to battle their way out of trouble last season and that is something we can take heart from.”
A clinical Wolves side took the spoils on Saturday, but there was no lack of effort from Evitts’ men.
“Not one of the players in the 18 on Saturday backed out of the challenge,” he said.
“They scored an early try and then we hit back with a converted try.
“But they are a good side and like any top side they were quick to capitalise on any errors we made.
“We ended up going in 34-7 down at half-time and it would have been easy for us to have folded.
“We lost second half 12-10, but we battled on. We didn’t fold and we made life hard for them and we can take heart from that. No one is giving in.”
Evitts believes Shrewsbury’s survival hopes will depend on their form at Sundorne Castle.
“Our home form will be key and we have four games at home that I think are winnable,” he said.
“If we show the sort of commitment that we did against Wolves on Saturday, then we can win those games.”
Liam Dreay, Dan Harrison and Ieuan Morris scored Shrews’ tries with Will Beddoes adding a conversion.
