2018 has been quite the year for Shrewsbury Town. After two losing visits to Wembley and a change of manager, the Shrews will surely end the year like they started it – challenging for an unlikely promotion to the Championship.
This chapter picks up from the aftermath of our FA Cup Round 1 tie against Dover. Following a recent decline in form, I have opted for a risky mid-season change of tactic. It could get us back on track… but then again, it could backfire spectacularly and send us plummeting down the table.
There will be a mid-season report at the end of this post, in which I will also detail my plans for the January transfer window. If things carry on as they have done in recent weeks, then one thing is for sure: we will need some new defenders.
WYCOMBE WANDERERS vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 19)
We start this chapter in the final weekend of November, when we travelled to Adams Park and faced 14th-placed Wycombe. Excluding the Pointless Trophy victory at Sunderland, we’d not won away from home in our last six attempts. To try and rectify that, we adopted a direct 4-4-2 from the outset, with top scorer Lee Angol being partnered up front by the big Welshman Aaron Amadi-Holloway.
Wycombe had the first shot on target in the 22nd minute, when veteran Sam Saunders tested Shrewsbury goalkeeper Joel Coleman from distance. However, we would score the first goal a little over a minute later. After his lofted free-kick into the Chairboys’ area was handled by defender Jason McCarthy, Angol stepped up to drive the penalty beyond Ryan Allsop. That was Lee’s 15th goal of the season.
In the 28th minute, though, our centre-backs learned a valuable lesson: “Don’t feed The Beast”. Captain Mat Sadler miscontrolled a short pass from partner and vice-skipper Omar Beckles, and the ball fell at the feet of Wycombe forward Adebayo Akinfenwa. The Nigerian might have been 36 years old and built like a proverbial brick house, but he still managed to race away from Sadler and drive in the equaliser.
Thankfully, our own target man was on hand to restore our advantage right before the half-hour. Abobaker Eisa‘s cross from the left wing was sidefooted by Alex Gilliead to the big Welshman, who powered in a volley for 2-1.
The crossbar denied Angol his second goal in the 36th minute, while Wycombe centre-back Anthony Stewart hit that same goal frame after the break. The second half was a close affair, with both goalies making vital saves. Allsop denied Shrews substitute Lenell John-Lewis in stoppage time before another shot from ‘The Shop’ ricocheted off Stewart. That deflection left Gilliead with a simple finish to secure us a 3-1 win.
A NEW TACTIC
For our next match against Plymouth, I decided to test a new version of the 4-1-4-1… 4-5-1… ah, you know what I mean. The reason for this sudden change was because it appeared to me that we were too passive in defence and too sloppy in possession, particularly at home. I never felt that we were in full control of any of our matches at New Meadow, not even against Dover in the FA Cup.
It had taken a few months for me to figure out that I was using two different tactics that were both generally counter-attacking in nature. We’d become a little too predictable, hence the recent downturn in results.
As such, I scrapped the ‘Wing Play’ tactical style and rebuilt the 4-1-4-1 from a clean slate. There would still be some counter-attacking elements to it, but the emphasis would be slightly more on controlling possession.
The biggest changes came in midfield. The deep-lying playmaker and mezzala were replaced with a box-to-box midfielder and an advanced playmaker – two roles which better suited Greg Docherty and Charlie Colkett respectively. If those two talented loanees could help us win the midfield battles, we would have a better chance of dominating visiting teams.
As the inside-forward was previously struggling to make any impact on the game, I gave him an Attack duty and reverted the winger to a Support duty. We would still look to focus play down the winger’s flank, though I had abandoned looking for the underlap down the opposite side. With the IF being more aggressive, that instruction would have been counter-productive.
I changed some instructions to try and keep possession a bit more effectively. The goalkeeper would take shorter kicks and look to distribute to the full-backs instead of punting it up to the flanks in general. In addition, we would start matches at a lower tempo than previously, and we wouldn’t pass into space quite so regularly.
As always, I would tweak this system if and when necessary. Against teams who played direct football but lacked fast attackers, for instance, I would push the defensive line up.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs PLYMOUTH ARGYLE (League One, Match 20)
Freddie Ladapo might have been a Romford boy like me, but the Plymouth striker clearly lacked the finishing skills of our townsman Frank Lampard, or even those of Ray Parlour. When Argyle wideman Graham Carey sent Ladapo clean through in the second minute, it was expected that the one-time Shrews loanee would send us behind. Fortunately, he struck the ball against the post before Brendan Galloway cleared into touch.
Ladapo’s miss would be magnified when our own hotshot found the net once again three minutes before half-time. Angol received the ball from Docherty and dribbled around Pilgrims defender Peter Grant before driving it home from 25 yards out. It really was a sweet 16 for New Meadow’s newest hero!
It had been a rather close game up until Angol’s opener. We quickly took control in the second goal, putting the ball in their net again on 55 minutes. Alas, Beckles was fractionally offside when he put the finishing touch to Angol’s flick-on from Docherty’s corner.
We effectively secured victory in the 67th minute, with Docherty heavily involved again. Greg’s attempted cross to Lee was cleared by Plymouth centre-back Scott Wootton, but only to Josh Laurent, whose finish left Matt Macey flat-footed for 2-0.
Beckles and Galloway then put in strong shifts at the other ends to deny Pilgrims any away goals, meaning we kept our first clean sheet since September! It seemed like the new system was already working!
At the end of November, we were five points adrift of the automatic promotion places, and the same distance ahead of 7th-placed Oxford. We would now put league matters aside for our next match, where we faced Wimbledon for the right to be amongst English football’s big hitters in Round 3 of the FA Cup.
AFC WIMBLEDON vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (FA Cup, Round 2)
We opened up December in much the same way as we began November – by taking an early lead at Wimbledon. This FA Cup tie looked to be going in our favour after just four minutes. Shrews winger Eisa intercepted a sloppy throw from Dons right-back Tennai Watson and then cut inside before swerving in an excellent 30-yard shot.
Another four minutes later, though, and our lead was gone, thanks to Wimbledon’s troublesome twosome up front. Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s long free-kick into the box was met with a weak clearance from Sadler, which allowed Pigott to volley in an equaliser.
The rest of the first half was very close, though luck was very much on the hosts’ side. Colkett bench a promising shot inches wide in the 38th minute, and his central midfield counterpart Tom Soares then had a stroke of good fortune just before half-time. The one-time Crystal Palace prospect – now a 32-year-old journeyman – volleyed Pigott’s left-wing cross in off the underside of Danny Coyne‘s bar, and we were 2-1 behind.
Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t peg the Dons back in the second period. Galloway and Gilliead each had shots saved by goalkeeper Tom King, while not even substitute Angol could conjure up a late moment of magic. With the scoreline staying at 2-1 Wimbledon, our FA Cup dream – not to mention our seven-match unbeaten run – was over.
BURTON ALBION vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 21)
It was always going to be a big ask to beat Burton in our next match. Nigel Clough’s side had won 13 of their first 20 matches since returning to League One from the Championship, leaving them in 2nd place behind only Barnsley. They would take an unsurprising 2-0 lead after just eight minutes, thanks to a couple of players whom I managed in different teams on the same FM17 save.
During that save two years ago, Liam Boyce scored in my first (and only) match as manager of Northern Ireland. In heading home a fourth-minute cross from left-back Omar Richards, Boyce bit the hand that once fed him in another universe. That was followed up four minutes later by a 25-yard rocket from Jake Hesketh, who’d previously been the star midfielder in my Millwall team which won the League One title.
Thankfully, Burton defender Kyle McFadzean – whom I briefly managed at Dagenham & Redbridge in my long-running FM13 career – did not find the net. His job was simply to prevent Angol from adding to his 16-goal haul for Shrewsbury, which he did with disappointing efficiency. Lee did have a couple of on-target efforts saved by goalie Dimitar Evtimov, but this would be neither his nor our day.
Our heaviest defeat of the season would be completed in the 83rd minute. Midfielder Stephen Quinn fired Burton to a resounding 3-0 win after his initial shot was blocked by Ollie Norburn. That result knocked us back down to 5th, and the fans were far from happy, with one getting straight to the point on social media:
While losing away from home against a side as strong as Burton’s was no disgrace, I can see the point. It wasn’t the kind of performance I would expect from a team challenging for the play-offs.
Out-of-favour defender Luke Waterfall was another man who made his feelings clear online. I have no idea why a Norwegian football website wanted to interview a disgruntled player from the English third division, but I guess we have quite a significant fanbase in Scandinavia. Those are the benefits of employing Swedish icon Patrik Andersson as a scout, I guess.
Anyway… there’s a valid reason why you’re not in the team, Luke. Having you in the centre of my defence is a surefire way to give the opposition a penalty and/or a soft goal. Don’t even bother issuing a transfer request, because I would happily let you leave in January, even if it means making a loss on what the club paid Lincoln for your services this summer!
Now that’s out of the way… let’s see how we fared in the Pointless Trophy, shall we?
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs DONCASTER ROVERS (EFL Trophy, North Round 2)
Doncaster were a team in disarray. They were in the relegation zone, Grant McCann had been sacked as manager, and club legend James Coppinger had just been forced to retire aged 37 due to a serious injury. Yet they still made us look like mugs at New Meadow in the first knockout round of the Pointless Trophy.
As the most experienced man in an otherwise useful Shrewsbury defence, I expected Beckles to lead by example. He most certainly did not in the 27th minute, failing to intercept Matty Blair’s right-wing cross before it found Mallik Wilks. The Rovers striker knocked it down to left-winger Tommy Rowe, who fired in the opener.
Beckles made another costly error ten minutes into the second half, pushing Wilks to the turf to stop him from reaching Ali Crawford’s corner. I was so disappointed with Omar that I substituted him for the fit-again Josh Emmanuel, immediately before Paul Taylor converted the penalty.
Our fate was sealed 15 minutes from the end. 16-year-old Ryan Millington – who’d started at right-back before moving to the centre after Beckles’ exit – clumsily tripped Wilks to concede a free-kick about 20 yards from our goal. Crawford drove it over the wall and into the net, thus consigning us to a 3-0 defeat and an early Trophy exit. We now had only the league to concentrate on.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs PETERBOROUGH UNITED (League One, Match 22)
After three consecutive defeats, I was a bit apprehensive about the visit of Peterborough, who were just outside the play-off places. By the 34th minute, I was genuinely fearing another loss. After Beckles was booked for tripping Posh striker Ivan Toney, winger Siriki Dembélé curled in a free-kick which Mark O’Hara confidently headed into the net.
Just before half-time, though, one Scottish midfielder saw the away lead he had built erased by another. Docherty’s first goal in a Shrewsbury jersey was worth the wait, as he ran onto Arthur Gnahoua‘s square pass and curled it home from about 25 yards.
The turnaround continued seven minutes into the second half. Sadler went to ground after an apparent push from visiting centre-back Rhys Bennett, which the referee saw as reason enough to award us a penalty. There was no dispute about who would take it, with Angol confidently driving in his third spot-kick – and his 17th goal overall – this season.
Though the post denied Lee his 18th goal shortly afterwards, that spot-kick proved to be the match-winner. A fantastic late save by Coleman from Posh midfielder Alex Woodyard kept our noses in front and gave me plenty of reason to be pleased at half-time. Not only did we retake 4th spot from Portsmouth, but any victory over the odious Steve Evans in the opposite dugout was cause for celebration as far as I was concerned.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs COVENTRY CITY (League One, Match 23)
We reached the halfway point of our League One season by hosting Coventry, who were sitting just ahead of the relegation zone. The Sky Blues had not won a league fixture in their last seven attempts, and they fell behind again eight minutes before the break. Colkett’s through-ball was slotted into the net by Gilliead, who was showing no ill effects of a calf injury he’d sustained earlier on.
We continued to take the game to Coventry in the second half, though Colkett dropped out after an hour with an ankle injury. Gilliead was then benched before the final 15 minutes as a precaution, and his substitute made an immediate impact. After being upended by former Shrewsbury team-mate Jordan Brown in the City defence, Shaun Whalley drove in a low direct free-kick to give us a two-goal cushion.
Though the game was now effectively over, visiting keeper Lee Burge stopped a couple of late attempts from Laurent to give us an even bigger win. Coleman had relatively little to do at the other end, with a rock-solid Shrews defence – spearheaded by a resurgent Beckles – helping him to claim a rare clean sheet.
ACCRINGTON STANLEY vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 24)
Accrington had defied expectations to stay clear of relegation in their first season at this level, and they showed real fighting spirit on Boxing Day too. The hosts almost got a fortuitous opening goal in the 16th minute, when striker Luke Charman’s attempted cross to Seamus Conneely was chested against the post by Whalley. Shaun then had to frantically scramble the ball away before the situation became more dire.
We benefited from some more luck four minutes later. Eisa struck the Stanley woodwork from distance, and Amadi-Holloway’s rebound shot was parried by Connor Ripley before he scored at the second time of asking.
Alas, we would not retain our lead for long. Just like he’d done at New Meadow earlier in the season, the skilful winger Jordan Clark drew Accrington level at 1-1 – only this time, he didn’t wait until the game was almost over. He equalised from the edge of our area in the 33rd minute after Ryan Haynes struggled to clear Sean McConville’s cross from the right.
Our confidence was badly shaken by that, and Stanley nabbed what proved to be the winning goal midway through the second half. Right-back Callum Johnson’s deep cross evaded his Shrews counterpart James Bolton and picked out McConville, who clinically finished at the back post. We could not recover from that, though Docherty and Sadler each came close to sparing us from defeat late on.
SUNDERLAND vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 25)
What a way to finish 2018, with the first goalless draw of my Shrewsbury reign! Sunderland had come back into form under their new manager Roberto Di Matteo, and my goal here was simply to avoid conceding any. In that respect, our defence did superbly, largely restricting the Black Cats to low-quality, long-range punts.
Charlie Wyke looked like Sunderland’s most threatening attacker, forcing Coleman into a couple of saves in the 19th and 30th minute. It was on-loan West Ham midfielder Grady Diangana who had their best chance midway through the second period, dribbling through a gap in our backline before Coleman clawed his effort behind.
It was a similar story at the other end of the field. After Amadi-Holloway was twice thwarted by goalie Robbin Ruiter in the first half, we struggled to get near the Mackems’ goal. Angol was enduring another of his occasional bad days at the office, so I was thankful to my defenders – Haynes especially – that we held on for a point.
MID-SEASON REPORT & TRANSFER PLANS
We will enter 2019 sitting pretty in the play-off positions, with a six-point gap to Oxford in 7th. Barnsley and Burton are still quite far ahead in the top two places, though Scunthorpe are starting to make a push towards automatic promotion.
After such an imperious start to the campaign, it was perhaps to be expected that recent results have become much less consistent. Even when things get tough, it’s important to keep things in perspective. The board were only expecting a top-half finish this season, so they’re delighted that we’re still flying so high. Just like last season’s side, this is an overachieving Shrewsbury team with staying power.
I highlighted our defensive deficiencies in the previous chapter, and I still have major concerns. We’ve not kept many clean sheets, while Portsmouth are the only other top-six side who’ve conceded more goals than us this season.
I’m refusing to put any blame on Coleman. He’s a very capable young goalkeeper for this level who has made few mistakes. Full-backs Emmanuel and Galloway are two other loanees who have looked fine, with the latter now coming of age after an unsteady start to his Shrews career. However, I have been misquoting Paul Simon and asking myself, “Why are we soft in the middle now?”
In terms of centre-backs, Beckles is the only one I’m entirely happy with. The 27-year-old vice-captain is one of our more consistent performers, despite the occasional lapse in focus, and is a strong influence in the dressing room. He’s also been giving hints about wanting a new contract, and with Sunderland understood to be interested in his services, I might act sooner rather than later.
Captain Sadler is 33 years old and sharply declining, so he’ll almost certainly leave at the end of the season. Youngster Zak Jules‘ contract also runs out in the summer, but I’ll loan him out to give him the opportunity to prove he deserves a new deal. As I’ve previously mentioned, Waterfall is surplus to requirements and can leave in January.
The chairman has given me a transfer budget of £60,000, which – along with anything we make from selling Waterfall – should be enough to sign two new central defenders. I’m hoping to bring in one experienced defender for the short-term, and a promising youngster for the long haul. As we already have five loanees (the maximum allowed in an EFL matchday squad), I won’t consider any further loan signings.
I also won’t make any new signings up front – unless Lenell John-Lewis decides to relocate, perhaps. That’s because Angol has enjoyed a sensational start to his Shrewsbury career, having led the League One goal charts for pretty much the entire campaign so far. Lee only found the net nine times for previous club Mansfield in League Two last season, but he’s already on course to at least double that in the higher division!
Only Hepburn-Murphy at Wimbledon has a better minutes-per-goal ratio in League One than Angol, who also ranks 6th on the conversion rate standings (scoring from 23% of his total shots). That just shows how lethal Lee is right now, and to be honest, I’m a little surprised that nobody from the Championship has yet taken notice. No news can only be good news for us on that front.
Gilliead has also delighted the Salop faithful in his debut season, recording eight goals and six assists so far. The pacey young Geordie has overtaken Whalley as our first-choice right-winger and is well on track to become a New Meadow mainstay. Gnahoua has outperformed Eisa on the left wing, and though neither man is particularly consistent, I probably won’t replace them until next season.
While we have no outstanding performers in midfield, I’m generally satisfied with our current options. The only one who’s likely to leave is Doug Loft – an ageing deep-lying playmaker who can’t hold his position and is simply not good enough for the EFL anymore. Teenager Ryan Barnett might be sent out on loan to build up his first-team experience, though I’ve not yet made my mind up on that.
In summary, my plans for the January window are to sign two new centre-backs and move a couple of players on. I won’t make any major changes to my squad until next season. After all, why fix something that isn’t broken?
What do you make of our situation so far? Are a couple of defender just what we need to maintain a promotion challenge, or do we perhaps need to strengthen elsewhere? I’d also appreciate some feedback on those tactical tweaks I mentioned earlier in the post. Feel free to let me know your thoughts, either by leaving a comment below or tweeting me @Fuller_FM.
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