[jjamez]

Saturday sees our second home league fixture of this new campaign as the Shrews of Shropshire come to Huddersfield.

Town have registered 3 wins from 3 in this early season and whilst that is a huge positive in comparison to previous years, there has also been signs of things to improve on. Take our game away at Peterborough, we got the win and clean sheet, but some would say we were opened up on a few too many occasions. The game against Morecambe, saw Town dominate from the first minute, but the second half was lacking in that clinical nature, Koroma being guilty of missing a golden opportunity, whilst also hitting the post, a few fringe players like Kian Harratt also failed to make an impact against a team likely to struggle this season and one that had been reduced to 10 men. Last Saturday, saw the opposition fluff a few decent opportunities, whilst they did manage to get one back late on, the second half performance from a Town perspective was poor and with no disrespect to Stevenage, a better standard of opposition or striker would have put us to the sword. The concerning thing was that this was our first choice back line and it was pulled out of shape often during the second half.



Anyway, enough of the slightly negative and on to the more positive. Now i've not been down to the ground yet, but it appears that it has had a bit of a makeover and is starting to look a lot nicer as a venue. Listening in to Nagle's diary, it sounds like there is still work to be done at the stadium, a lot of which will wait until we own the ground, but it is definitely moving in the right direction. In the same diary, it sounds like we are still looking to be active in the window but Duff and Nagle are both happy with how the side is shaping up at the moment. We all know where we would like to strengthen, but maybe this is more a case of keeping our cards close to our chest in the final weeks of the window. Elsewhere, it seems like a lot of the improvements that are in progress right now are to do with revenue and customer/supporter satisfaction, with the club needing to increase the money coming in through means outside transfer activity in order to be better prepared and competitive on a larger scale, the emphasis on having ties with someone who has worked closely with Adidas and also being from the Town makes me think that this could be one of the lines that the club takes. The man in question is the uncle of one Frazier Campbell, remember him?

Moving onto the game itself, Shrewsbury have had a largely disappointing start to the season, currently sitting bottom of the league after two games, but that doesn't really mean anything at this stage. They started the season away at Stevenage and lost 1-0 before taking on league two side Notts County in the league cup, after drawing the initial tie 3-3 they went through on penalties 4-3. Last time in the league was at home to Peterborough and they were well and truly put to the sword, losing 4-1, this coming after going one goal ahead. In all their games so far they have yielded possession and been more than willing to concede niggling fouls in order to break up play. They did play on Tuesday in the Weird not important cup against Fulham under 21's and lost 2-1, despite having 21 shots, only 3 hit the target. It would be fair to expect Town to be seeing most of the ball and look to try and make use of superiority at set pieces, lucky we have one big lad and only a couple of tallish guys, otherwise, I think we are fairly short in stature, but we should still be able to create chances against them. As long as we don't go too gung ho if they sit deep and frustrate, that sort of mentality leaves us very open at the back.

A little about the club, Founded in 1886, the club were inaugural members of the Shropshire & District League in 1890 and then joined the Birmingham & District League five years later. Crowned champions in 1922–23, they switched to the Midland League in 1937 and won the Midland League title in 1937–38, 1945–46 and 1947–48. Shrewsbury were admitted into the Football League in 1950 and won promotion out of the Fourth Division at the end of the 1958–59 season. They were promoted again in 1974–75 after being relegated the previous year, and went on to win the Third Division title in 1978–79. They returned to the fourth tier following relegations in 1989 and 1992, where they won another league title in 1993–94. The club lost in the 1996 Football League Trophy final and dropped into non-League football after suffering relegations in 1997 and 2003. Shrewsbury immediately regained their Football League status after winning the 2004 Conference play-off final. They subsequently lost League Two play-off finals in 2007 and 2009 before they won automatic promotion in 2011–12 and again in 2014–15 after relegation in the previous season. They finished as runners-up in the 2018 EFL Trophy final and 2018 League One play-off final. They finished 19th in the league last season and have been widely predicted to struggle in this upcoming campaign, with finances not readily available to compete with a lot of the teams in the league.

Shrewsbury itself is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, 150 miles (240 km) north-west of London. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 76,782. Shrewsbury has Anglo-Saxon roots and institutions whose foundations dating from that time represent a cultural continuity possibly going back as far as the 8th century.
The centre has a largely undisturbed medieval street plan and over 660 listed buildings,[6] including several examples of timber framing from the 15th and 16th centuries. Shrewsbury Castle, a red sandstone fortification, and Shrewsbury Abbey, were founded in 1074 and 1083 respectively by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery, the town is the birthplace of fabled biologist Charles Darwin.

Prior to the late 8th century, there is little in the way of reliable records. There is a tradition that the town was "founded in the 5th century, on occasion of the decay of the Roman Uriconium." It is claimed that Pengwern, sometime capital of the Kingdom of Powis (itself established by the 440s), was at Shrewsbury.The first attested association of Pengwern with Shrewsbury is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century.

In 914,Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great and known as the Lady of the Mercians, fortified Shrewsbury, along with Hereford and two other fortresses, at Scergeat (a currently unknown location) and Weardbyrig (thought to be Whitchurch. Viking raiders from the north were reaching as far south as Bridgnorth by 910. In the early 10th century, the relics of St Alkmund were translated to the town from Derby, this was probably the work of Æthelflæd.

Roger de Montgomery was given the town as a gift from William the Conqueror and took the title of Earl of Shrewsbury. He built at Shrewsbury Castle in 1074, though archaeological excavations at the site of Shrewsbury castle in 2019 have indicated that the location may have been a fortified site in the time of the Anglo-Saxons. In 1102, Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury was deposed and the title forfeited, as a consequence of him rebelling against Henry I and joining the Duke of Normandy's invasion of England in 1101. William Pantulf, Lord of Wem, assisted Henry in putting down the rebellion. From 1155, during the reign of Henry II, there was a leper hospital dedicated to St Giles and associated with Shrewsbury Abbey. From the 1220s, there was also a general hospital dedicated to St John the Baptist. In January 1234 Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Wales and Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke burned down the town and laid siege to its castle. In 1283, Edward I summoned a parliament in Shrewsbury, later adjourned to Acton Burnell,to try and condemn Dafydd ap Gruffydd, last of the native Princes of Wales, to execution by hanging, drawing and quartering within the town after Dafydd was captured, ending his rebellion against the king. It is thought this parliament met in the Abbey.

In the middle ages, Shrewsbury was devastated by the Black Death, which, records suggest, arrived in the spring of 1349. Examining the number of local church benefices falling vacant due to death, 1349 alone saw twice as many vacancies as the previous ten years combined, suggesting a high death toll in Shrewsbury. "The Great Fire of Shrewsbury" took place in 1394: St Chad's church was consumed by an accidental fire, which spread to a great portion of the town, then chiefly consisting of timber houses with thatched roofs. The damage was so considerable that Richard II remitted the town's taxes for three years towards the repairs.In 1398, Richard summoned a Great Parliament in the town, which is believed to have met in the Abbey.

In 1403 the Battle of Shrewsbury was fought at Battlefield, a few miles north of the town centre, between King Henry IV and Henry Percy (Hotspur), with the king emerging victorious. Hotspur's body was taken by Thomas Neville, to Whitchurch, for burial. However, when rumours circulated that Percy was still alive, the king "had the corpse exhumed and displayed it, propped upright between two millstones, in the market place at Shrewsbury".That being done, Percy was subjected to posthumous execution.

One of the Princes in the Tower, Richard of Shrewsbury, was born in the town around 17 August 1473, the second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. In 1480, Edward V, then Prince of Wales (and the other prince of the Princes in the Tower), was resident in Shrewsbury. I read and heard about these two whilst at the Tower of London last weekend, it doesn't surprise me the lengths people went to to get power, even back then.

In 1485, ahead of the Battle of Bosworth Field, Henry Tudor, while not yet king, marched his forces on a route that lay through Shrewsbury. He was initially denied access to the town, but on intervention by a member of the Stanley family he was admitted. Thomas Mytton, the Bailiff of the town, a supporter of Richard III, had vowed that the only way he would get through was "over his dead body". Thomas then lay down and allowed Henry to step over him, to free himself from his oath. Henry was accommodated in the building now known as Henry Tudor House on Wyle Cop. In 1490, Henry VII, accompanied by his queen and his son, Prince Arthur, celebrated the feast of St George in the town.



During the English Civil War, Shrewsbury was a Royalist stronghold, under the command of Sir Francis Ottley.In the autumn of 1642 Charles I had a temporary base in the town. Prince Rupert established his headquarters in the town on 18 February 1644, being welcomed by Shrewsbury's aldermen. He was billeted in a building then the home of the family of Thomas Jones in the precincts of what is now the Prince Rupert Hotel. Shrewsbury only fell to Parliament forces after they were let in by a parliamentarian sympathiser at the St Mary's Water Gate (now also known as Traitor's Gate). After Thomas Mytton captured Shrewsbury in February 1645; in following with the ordnance of no quarter; a dozen Irish prisoners were selected to be killed after picking lots. This prompted Rupert to respond by executing Parliamentarian prisoners in Oswestry.

The town suffered very little from air raids in the Second World War; the worst case was in 1940, when a woman and her two grandchildren were killed when a cottage was destroyed on Ellesmere Road, the only local air raid deaths.Therefore, many of its ancient buildings remain intact and there was little redevelopment in the 1960s and 1970s. However, some historic buildings were demolished to make way for the brutalist architectural style of the 1960s, though the town was saved from a new inner ring road due to its challenging geography.

Between 1962 and 1992 there was a hardened nuclear bunker and would have sounded the four-minute warning alarm in the event of war and warned the population of Shrewsbury in the event of approaching radioactive fallout.The building was staffed by up to 120 volunteers who trained on a weekly basis. After the breakup of the communist bloc in 1989, the Royal Observer Corps was disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995. However, the nuclear bunker still stands just inside Holywell Street near the Abbey as a lasting reminder of the Cold War, but is now converted and used as a veterinary practice.

The town was targeted by the IRA in 1992. One bomb was detonated at Shrewsbury Castle, causing severe damage to the regimental museum of the Shropshire Light Infantry, estimated to be in the region of £250,000 and many artefacts were lost. A second bomb, detonated in the Darwin Shopping Centre, was put out by the sprinkler system before any major damage was caused. Finally, a third bomb was discovered elsewhere in the town centre but failed to do any serious damage.



In terms of who to watch, it is quite difficult as I don't really know many of their players, one name that does stand out is John Marquis who had a good spell at Doncaster Rovers where he scored 61 goals over a 3 year period, earning him a move to Portsmouth for just under £2 million, there, he wasn't quite as prolific, but still handy enough with 28 in 93. He would then move to Lincoln on a short term contract before winding up at Bristol Rovers, who released him at the end of last season, whilst his record there wasn't bad, the belief is that his best years are behind him with injuries occurring more regularly.



Another to stand out a little is Jordan Rossiter, the midfielder began his career with Liverpool, often training with the first team but only managing one appearance for the Reds before heading north of the border to Rangers. His time in Scotland was injury ravaged, with one calf injury keeping him out for 4 months despite it only being minor. The midfielder was sent for specialist treatment back down in England to try and cure the reoccurring problem. He would manage just 10 appearances for the Glasgow side during a 4 year stay, with loans to Bury and Fleetwood also being on the cards. Upon leaving Rangers he would move to the West coast of England and sign permanently for Fleetwood, spending two full seasons at the club and managing the one goal before moving to Bristol Rovers. He would spend two years at the Memorial Ground before following Marquis up to Shrewsbury.



Elsewhere in the squad are the likes of Aaron Pierre and Toto Nsiala and Jordan Shipley. Pierre has spent the vast majority of his career in the lower leagues of England, he played over 120 games for Wycombe in league two before moving up a league to Northampton where he would spend 2 seasons before joining Shrewsbury for his first spell upon the Cobblers getting relegated. After three seasons in Shropshire, he would drop down a division to join Sutton United, but would play only two games before joining AFC Wimbledon on a short term contract, eventually going back to Shrewsbury for his second spell. Nsiala likewise has spent a lot of his career in the bottom divisions after coming through at Everton. Known as a strong defender, Nsiala's first taste of league football was on loan at Macclesfield before a further loan at Accrington Stanley, which would lead to a permanent deal at the Lancashire side. It would be just the one season as he dropped out of the football league to join conference side Southport, reuniting with former manager John Coleman. He would spend a year there before joining fellow Cconference side Grimsby on an initial one year deal. This was extended and Nsiala and the Mariners would win promotion back to the football league, but Nsiala would move to pastures new at Hartlepool, again this only lasted a year before he joined Shrewsbury for his first spell, rejoining Paul Hurst who had managed him at Grimsby. He would spend two seasons at the Shrews before handing in a transfer request in order to join Hurst at Ipswich, Nsiala would fare slightly better at the Tractors Boys than his manager and spent four seasons there, including one year on loan at Bolton. He eventually left in order to join Fleetwood, he would play 38 times for Fleetwood before moving to Burton on a short term deal to finish last season, rejoining Shrewsbury over this summer to pair up with Hurst once again. Shipley spent 6 years with Coventry before joining Shrewsbury back in 2022. He played a key role in getting the Sky Blues back into the Championship, his game time dwindled however and he has since been a key player in the midfield for the Shrews, scoring 10 goals in 79 games.



Managed by Paul Hurst, in his second stint at the club, he rejoined the club in January a few months after being sacked by Grimsby. He has had a few spells in charge of those as well, even joining Shrewsbury originally from the mariners back in 2016. He left his first spell at the new meadow to head over to Ipswich. His stay at Ipswich is the shortest reign of anyone in Ipswich's history. Hurst has also managed Scunthorpe, Boston and Ilkeston, the latter two being as a joint manager with Rob Scott, who he knew from his playing career. As a player, Hurst played almost entirely at Rotherham, being at the club from 1993 to 2008, amassing over 400 appearances for the millers. He had one loan spell away from the club at the end of his career when he rocked up at Burton Albion, who were then in the Conference.



Shrewsbury currently have a number of first-team players out through injury. Morgan Feeney and Josh Feeney both have hamstring issues, while George Nurse has a quad problem and Carl Winchester has a groin injury, although he featured in the defeat against Peterborough, but came off in the game against Fulham under21's. Hurst has said that if there is any more incomings at the club it is likely to be the one solitary loan deal with the Shrews expected to play with the hand that they have been dealt.

Paul Hurst's musings

As for Town, there have been no new injuries to report, with Rhys Healey expected to be fit for Saturday. Bojan has started work back on the grass but is still expected to be a few weeks away from being ready for first team action. Balker is the long term absentee in the squad. Duff and Lasse Sorensen spoke to the media earlier with more details for Saturdays fixture.



In terms of head to heads, there hasn't been too many, with the Shrews having the upper hand over the Terriers. The current record is 24 games played, 10 wins for Shrewsbury, 9 for Town and 5 draws. The first meeting was way back in 1973, where a spritely youthful Snoots would have been raucous in and amongst the smoke in the cowshed end! The last meeting between the sides was back in 2016 in league cup action, when David Wagner took a strong side to the Greenhous Meadow. Shrewsbury striker AJ Leitch-Smith scored past Danny Ward after just 20 seconds. Kachunga replied for Town after 39 minutes before the home side sealed victory through Louis Dodds in the 77th minute. A notable player on the bench for Shrewsbury that day was Ivan Toney, he probably had a couple of quid on a home victory too knowing him. Other notable players to play for Shrewsbury in modern times include, former Bournemouth stalwart Charlie Daniels, who spent a season at Shrewsbury after leaving the Cherries. Welsh international and Wolves legend David Edwards had two spells at the club, making over 170 appearances for the side in total before moving to Bala Town in Wales as well as punditry. Sticking with the Welsh theme and the name Edwards, Luton boss Rob Edwards had a short spell at the club on loan from Barnsley before retiring and moving into management. Former Rangers captain Connor Goldson began his professional career at the Shropshire side, making over 100 appearances for the side before moving the Brighton. He only managed 32 games for the Seagulls after being diagnosed with a heart defect. He moved north of the border after being given the all clear and made just under 200 appearances for the club in his 6 year stay before turning Birmingham down and moving to Aris of Cyprus this summer.



Other players to play for Shrewsbury include Liam Lawrence of Mansfield Playoff fame, Carlton Morris formerly of Barnsley, now at Luton, had a loan at the Shrews, former Preston and Real Sociedad manager David Moyes spent 3 years at the club during the 80's, sticking with Preston managers and their most recent one Ryan Lowe made his name at the Shrews at the start of his career, he would make 171 appearances for the side, but would be more well known for his times at Bury. Fellow manager Nigel Pearson began his career at Shrewsbury, making 150 appearances as a defender for the club before moving to Sheffield Wednesday. Potential England manager Graham Potter had a short loan spell at the Shrews towards the end of his playing career, they like being a playing home for managers don't they? Current Town number 1 Lee Nicholls had a gameless loan spell at the club early in his career.

One of the most notable players to come through the Shrewsbury set up would be one Charles Joseph John Hart. The goalkeeper would make his debut for the side in 2004 and after a series of good performances, Manchester City came knocking and the rest was history so to speak. He would have a number of loans out, one being at Blackpool where his debut would be away at Town. Eventually he would go on to make 266 appearances for the the Cityzens, as well as 75 for the national side. He finished his career at Celtic this summer and moved onto the panel for Match of the Day for this coming campaign.



A number of former Town players have been involved with Shrewsbury, some I will mention here, others will be in a set of anagrams below. Former Town midfielder Dean Whitehead was assistant manager at Shrewsbury for a spell, a spell in which he took 'future Town Captain' Scott High on loan to the club, that was probably as good as it will get for the young midfielder who has lost his way somewhat and looks in need of a fresh break somewhere else. Speaking of being somewhere else, Kieran Phillips had a loan spell at Shrewsbury last season, but this was injury hit and his appearances limited, leading to Town sending him to sunny Sacremento to get some prolonged game time. Another Town academy graduate Joe Skarz spent a time on loan at Shrewsbury after Lee Clark decided to sign Australian full back Dean Heffernan to act as backup for Robbie Williams. Former Town loanee Grant Holt had a season at Shrewsbury where he scored 20 goals in 43 games, earning him a move to Norwich City, where he would go on to be a cult icon. Speaking of backups, Joel Coleman spent a season on loan at Shrewsbury from Town after we had been relegated back to the Championship, he had just agreed a new deal with the club, but would not make another appearance as he was sent on his way. Sticking with goalkeepers that weren't very good, Scott Bevan had a spell at both clubs. His time at Town saw the club relegated from then League Two, he was on loan from Southampton. His time at Shrewsbury came 5 years later, where he would make just 5 appearances for the club before moving on to Torquay.

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