[Lord Snooty]

Shrewsbury Town v Huddersfield Town
Sky Bet League One
Saturday January 11th - 15:00 ko
at the Croud Meadow

Huddersfield Town travel to Shrewsbury in Shropshire to the New Meadow on Saturday afternoon for a game of football.

Following a fantastic, maybe fortunate win, down at Wycombe on Tuesday night, the Terriers travel full of optimism. We are now on a run of 15 games unbeaten in the league and also a sequence of four consecutive league away wins. Now I don't want to tempt fate but, the club record for away wins on the bounce is six from back in the days when wor Lee Clark was our leader. Not even the greats of the 1920s managed six. Our next three away matches are Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Northampton.

Right, that's enough fate tempting for now. Will this game at the Meadow even go ahead? Am I tempting fate again by posting this match thread on Thursday? The forecast for Shropshire on Saturday is very cold, with a high of only one degree. Doesn't sound very likely. But they managed to get a game on at Rochdale last night, so the Shrews have no excuse.

Any team news? No not yet. The Manager of the Month nominated Michael Duff will be having his press conference later today, so hopefully he'll be reporting a clean bill of health with Michal Helik making a miraculous recovery from whatever ailed him the other night and Brodie Spencer not being injured after limping off at Wycombe. Well let's hope so.

Tickets: We have been allocated 1,644 tickets for the fixture located in the West Stand.

Adults - £25
65s and over - £18
Disabled Supporters - £18
Student (With ID) - £18
Young Adult (19-23-years) - £18
14-18-years - £11
13s and under - £1
Children under 7 – Free

Official coach travel will be available for this fixture, priced at £22 per-person. Departure will be from our St Andrew’s Road Car Park at 10.30am on match day.

If you're making your own way down to Shrewsbury, here's a handy guide provided by their Supporter Liaison Officer. Thanks to our theo_luddite for finding this......

https://images.gc.shrewsburytownfcservic...a50096.pdf




A brief history of Shrewsbury Town: Formed in 1886.

1890 - 1895; Shropshire & District League
1895 - 1937; Birmingham & District League
1937 - 1950; Midland Football League
1950 - 1951; Division 3 (North)
1951 - 1958; Division 3 (South)
1958 - 1959; Division 4
1959 - 1974; Division 3
1974 - 1975; Division 4
1975 - 1979; Division 3
1979 - 1989; Division 2
1989 - 1992; Division 3 (4th tier)
1994 - 1997; Division 2 (3rd tier)
1997 - 2003; Division 3 (4th tier)
2003 - 2004; Conference (5th tier)
2004 - 2012; League Two (4th tier)
2012 - 2014; League One (3rd tier)
2014 - 2015; League Two
2015 to now; League One


Third Division (level 3): champions 1978/79

Fourth Division (level 4): champions 1993/94
runners up 1974/75, 2011/12, 2014/15
promoted 1958/59

Conference (level 5): play off winners 2004

EFL Trophy: runners up 1995/96, 2017/18

Welsh Cup: winners 1890–91, 1937–38, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1983–84, 1984–85
runners up 1930–31, 1947–48, 1979–80

Head to Head



The head to head is level pegging with 10 wins each and 5 draws.

Apart from the one we won this season, 1-0 with a Callum Marshall goal, I can't remember any of the other victories. But there are some horrendous defeats that are permanently etched in my brain.

Back in the 1980s, when Mick Buxton was king, Shrewsbury Town haunted him. There was a famous FA Cup 3rd round match at Leeds Road in 1980/81 which we got stuffed in. I have to point out though that at this time, we were a division below them as the Shrews had been in the 2nd Division (now Championship) for a couple of seasons after winning the 3rd Division title in 78/79. We were in the old 3rd Division, having recently won the 4th Division title.

Anyway the game became famous in pub quizzes as we became the only team to have conceded three goals against three different goalkeepers. I remember the Town goalies, but I apologise that I've no idea who scored the Shrewsbury goals. They went one up early on, scoring against Andy Rankin. He then picked up an injury which would keep him out for the rest of the season and was replaced between the sticks by our super striker Steve Kindon. If you don't know Kindon, kids, he was built like Laurent Depoitre but had the speed of Usain Bolt. And he knew where the back of the net was.

Unfortunately, he was soon picking the ball out of the back of our net as the Shrews went two up soon after half time. Now chasing the game, Buxton wanted Kindon back up front and so made the decision to put Mark Lillis in goal. This was with all of them wearing the same green jersey by the way. No goalkeepers on the bench back then, they just pulled the shirt over their outfield shirt.

Anyway, Lillis let one in and so we lost 3-0.

Things got worse. After our promotion to Division Two, we got tonked twice by them, both by five goals to one, in 84/85.

The most infamous one though was in the 1994/95 promotion season when we lost under water at Gay Meadow by a 2-1 scoreline. It of course, became famous for the half time Neil Warnock rant.

Here you go......







That was the last time we were in the same league, but they did join the list of lower league teams that have humiliated us in the League Cup back in 2016. They scored in the first minute at their place, before Elias Kachunga equalised for us. That didn't help though as Louis Dodds went and got a late winner for the Shrews.

If we do win this weekend, it will be the first time we've done the double over them since 1986/87 when we beat them 2-1 twice. Duncan Shearer bagged both in the home game. He scored in the away game as well, as did Ian Banks.



So what's going on down at the old Gay Meadow? Managed nowadays by Gareth Ainsworth, the front man of rock band The Cold Blooded Hearts.

Earlier in his career, he was in a band called APA with Wimbledon teammates Chris Perry and Trond Andersen. He later joined the band Dog Chewed the Handle, named after a Terrorvision song, after answering an advert in Loot.

The band were invited to support Bad Manners on tour but rejected the offer due to clashes with Gareth's footballing career. The band later split, with he and another member forming a new band, Road to Eden. In November 2019, he joined The Cold Blooded Hearts and they released their debut album in July 2023, produced by Yes keyboardist Geoff Downes.

Shrewsbury profiles:

Jamal Blackman signed for Shrewsbury just before Christmas and made his debut in the 2-2 draw away at Wigan.

He's 31 now, having joined the Chelsea Academy at the age of 13. In nine years there, he only made the first team bench once and eventually left in 2021 without even one single first team game. Not even a Cup game. He didn't completely waste his time though, having eight loan spells, taking in such exotic places as Middlesbrough, Östersunds in Sweden, Wycombe Wanderers, Sheffield United, Leeds United, Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands, Bristol Rovers and Rotherham United.

Following the loan at the New York Stadium, his contract at Chelsea was up and so when he was released he went over to the States, playing for Bob Bradley at Los Angeles FC.

He only played 8 games there, but that was just before his career hit it's height when in 2022 he signed for Championship high flyers, Huddersfield Town. Lee Nicholls was our number one, so he had to sit on the bench most of the time. He played in the FA Cup games against Barnsley and Nottingham Forest and kept a clean sheet in his one league game, the 2-0 home win against Bristol City, as Nicholls was rested for the Play Offs.

He was on the bench at Wembley in the game we don't talk about and was then released. He then had a season at Exeter City and last season was at Burton Albion.

Shrewsbury in popular culture: The group T'Pau were formed in Shrewsbury in 1986, with Carol Decker on vocals. Their first hit was Heart and Soul, which was a flop, but after it was featured in a jeans commercial, became a hit, reaching number 4 in the UK Hit Parade.

The next single, China In Your Hand, reached number one and suddenly Carol was a superstar. The hits dried up though, with just one more in the Top Ten, Valentine.

They're still going though after all these years, but with only Decker and Ronnie Rogers of the original line up left.

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Wycombe 0-1 Town
Town 0-0 Rotherham
Town 1-1 Burton
Town 1-0 Stockport
Cambridge 0-4 Town
Town 2-2 Lincoln

L.Orient 1-0 Shrews
Blackpool 1-1 Shrews
Shrews 1-1 Northampton
Shrews 1-0 Lincoln
Wigan 2-2 Shrews
Shrews 1-4 Wycombe

Town are 4th in the League One table with 47 points. The Shrews are 22nd with 17.

[WakeyTerrier]

Latest update is they have had covers on the pitch since Tuesday morning so I’d say it’s 50/50 on the chances of being played right now

[jjamez]

I imagine it's less than 50/50 of being played right now if the covers are on

[theo_luddite]

This photo from their Twatter feed would indicate they are trying to help the covers with a single bank of warming lights. Talk about a candle in the wind. If there was any wind there wouldn't be any frost.

---

Deary me!!

https://x.com/i/status/1877053153578987521

[theo_luddite]

Rob Edwards sacked at Luton - knock on effect on possible transfers ..... ???

[jjamez]

Think he meant that...

[Lord Snooty]

[Lord Snooty]

Kasumu out for 2-4 weeks. Lonwijk 6-8 weeks. Helik back in the building but not trained today. Spencer having a scan today.

[theo_luddite]

That forecast 3°C heatwave seems to have dissipated. Temperatures are now forecast to stay below freezing tomorrow and they might touch 2°C just around kick-off on Saturday, but they won't last for long. Also Salop appear to have only protected the playing surface and not the bits that players will end up on if there's any robust touchline challenges.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a pitch inspection on Friday or the very latest Saturday morning. Town are likely due to travel Friday afternoon and Wakey might find himself some room mates next door that he knows if they do. As the Shrews would be on the hook for that expense, they likely won't want to pay it twice if they can avoid it.



Meanwhile, how's the order for 2000 pies doing?

Rescheduling for Tuesday (if the local constabulary agrees to the short notice, though they rarely do these days) might be a better idea, though it would screw up the travel plans of a lot of Town fans. It will be played some Tuesday in the future which would screw up their plans anyway. Common sense and football rarely meet in the same room though do they?

Oops, no that won't happen either. Salop are home to Wrexham on Thursday - has to be a tellybox game.

[WakeyTerrier]

Right now I’d be happy for them to call this game off. The bad weather is one thing but last night our boiler decided to stop working.Getting that fixed is a priority over watching the football.