After a few days off from blogging following a family bereavement, I’m back with the latest installment of “Floreat Salopia”. Just to recap, Shrewsbury Town have made another strong start to a League One campaign, giving fans hope that 2019/2020 could be a season of promotion.
This chapter will take us through September and October 2019, which also includes our first couple of matches in the Pointless Trophy. But before we return to action, let’s have a look at my 11th and final summer signing, whom I got through the door just before the transfer window closed…
ONE MIR SIGNING
I had enough room in my squad make one more loan signing, and there was one area in particular where I felt we needed more depth. Alex Gilliead‘s ankle injury in mid-August had highlighted a potential weakness on the right wing. Aside from the prodigious Geordie, we didn’t really have any other effective wingers on that side of the pitch.
Sullay Kaikai was a right-footer who could naturally play in that position, but he tended to cut inside, which was a no-go as far as a winger role was concerned. Wing-back Kane Wilson was only ‘competent’ in that role, while Arthur Gnahoua, Robbie Muirhead and Fejiri Okenabirhie were all left-footed. There were no ready-made options in the Under-18s either, so…
…I asked our local rivals Wolves for a favour, and they lent us their young right-winger Rafa Mir for the season. The 22-year-old is lightning-quick, energetic, and he’s got impressive crossing ability. Aside from his below-average determination, there’s not a lot to dislike about him.
Mir scored 11 goals for Las Palmas in La Liga 2 last season, which suggests that he could be a classy addition to an English third-tier team. Indeed, he is already listed as our ‘Key Player’ on our Club page, while my assistant manager Craig Brewster rates him as a “good player for most Championship sides”.
Rafa would make his Shrews debut in our opening match of the Pointless Trophy. We kicked off the group stage at Salford, who’d made a stuttering start to life in League Two. Could the Ammies cause an upset with one of Manchester United’s ‘Class of 92’ watching on (and by that, I meant director of football Chris Casper)?
SALFORD CITY vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (EFL Trophy, North Group H – Match 1)
We’d been notoriously slow starters this season, and it was more of the same at Moor Lane. In fairness, Salford goalkeeper Andy Lonergan looked almost unbeatable in the first half. It would take an excellent move involving our strikers to breach his goal in the 61st minute. Aaron Amadi-Holloway crossed to teenager Lifumpa Mwandwe in the box before surging upfield to power in the return ball.
It looked like Amadi-Holloway’s goal would get us off to the strongest of starts in the Pointless Trophy. However, a late Salford counter-attack saw Danny Lloyd drive in a 20-yard equaliser from their only shot on target. That earned each team a point after 90 minutes, with one more to be awarded in a penalty shoot-out.
The scoreline read 3-3 after four kicks apiece, and a confident fifth Shrews penalty from James Bolton put us in the driving seat. The pressure was now on 34-year-old Ammies defender Nathan Pond to force sudden death. Just like Dan Gardner before him, though, Pond fired his spot-kick too close to Jack Bonham, whose saves secured us a second point. We therefore kicked off the group in 2nd behind Everton Under-23s, who’d won 2-0 outright at Accrington.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs PORTSMOUTH (League One, Match 8)
Normal service then resumed in League One, as we again took a very long time to get up and running and Portsmouth. A dreadful opening period didn’t see its first shot on goal until the 29th minute, when Gnahoua’s header was caught by Pompey keeper Craig MacGillivray. The one-time Shrews custodian also saved a last-minute effort from our home debutant Mir.
My biggest concern at that point was that we had lost Charlie Colkett, who strained his groin in a 34th-minute collision with Portsmouth midfielder Ben Close. Substitute Bryn Morris had to take on playmaking duties, adopting a deeper-lying role than the stricken Colkett, who would now be out for around three weeks.
Then came our customary second-half surge. In the 63rd minute, vice-captain David Edwards sought out the advancing Wilson on the right wing. Our teenage wing-back sent an excellent delivery to the far post, where Gnahoua popped up to stab in what proved to be the winner. A couple of near-misses from Jamal Lowe aside, Pompey hardly looked capable of pulling themselves back into contention.
BRADFORD CITY vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 9)
Bradford were battling relegation again, which was no surprise really, as they’d gone through so many managers in so little time. I’d previously bettered both David Hopkin and Tim Sherwood last season, and Kenny Jackett was the latest Bantams boss to taste defeat against my Shrews.
The decisive blow was dealt in the very first minute at Valley Parade. The referee pointed to Bradford’s penalty spot after just 26 seconds, following a careless push from defender Anthony O’Connor on Lee Angol. Our hotshot then dusted himself down and thundered the ball into keeper Richard O’Donnell’s top-right corner.
That very early penalty proved to be the only goal. Bradford’s lone striker Eoin Doyle had a couple of shots saved by Freddie Woodman midway through the first half. Despite some excellent midfield passing from Crystal Palace loanee Nya Kirby, the bantamweight Bantams struggled to lay a glove on us afterwards.
We had two great chances to boost our 1-0 lead at either end of the second half. In the 47th minute, the post prolonged Sullay Kaikai‘s wait for his first goal since coming back to Shrewsbury. Edwards was another returning Salopian looking to break his goalscoring duck, but O’Donnell kept out his header. No worries, because we stayed calm and ground out another victory.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs SCUNTHORPE UNITED (League One, Match 10)
Scunthorpe arrived at New Meadow right in the play-off mix, and with the potential to leapfrog us if they won by at least two goals. They got their first on the board after just 11 minutes. Elliott Frear’s fearless corner was nodded in at the near post by left-back Kevin O’Connor, who celebrated as if he’d won the Irish lottery. Oh, wait, he already had.
The only millionaire in the Scunthorpe side was then astonishingly charitous in the 33rd minute. A wasteful long throw-in from O’Connor was intercepted by Edwards, whose header found Angol on the edge of the Iron’s six-yard box. Angol then used his dribbling skills to get past centre-halves Rory McArdle and Cameron Burgess before carving in an equaliser. Cheers, Kevin!
Scunny went back on the offensive in the second half. Woodman was unfazed by a header from Burgess or a long-range effort from right-back Jordan Clarke. Midfield playmaker Samir Carruthers – one of our play-off nemeses from when he was at Oxford last season – also failed to find the net with a couple of audacious shots from distance. However, one home midfielder would have better luck.
As the visitors started to tire in the 88th minute, substitute winger Alex Gilliead led a Shrewsbury counter-attack. Alex’s attempted cross to Lee was well blocked by Burgess, but the ball then dipped towards Morris, whose 25-yard volley proved irressistible for keeper Rory Watson! Angol then had a potential third Shrews goal ruled out for offside before we completed an eighth win in 10 league outings!
Meanwhile, Brexit finally happened…
Seeing as I’m neither Neil Warnock nor Jürgen Klopp, I’ll probably keep my views to myself. Let’s just say, though, that Football Manager Twitter is slightly more civil than real-life Twitter on this particular topic. Can we have more of this, please?
WALSALL vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 11)
We then ended September much like we concluded August, with our hitherto rock-solid defence inexplicably conceding three goals away from home. Walsall’s form coming into this match might have screamed mid-table, but it turned out that our Midlands rivals were more than alright on the right.
Former FM11 wonderkid Zeli Ismail blazed a trail for the Saddlers in the 15th minute. Having latched onto a cross-field pass from midfielder James Vincent, the ex-Wolves winger ghosted past both Omar Beckles and Brendan Galloway before cutting in a low shot. Galloway had another moment to forget three minutes later, failing to keep tabs on Ethan Laird before the on-loan Manchester United right-back fired in his first senior goal.
Walsall were unfortunate not to go 3-0 ahead in the 39th minute, when Woodman pushed Morgan Ferrier’s header against his crossbar. They continued to run the show in the second half, though we didn’t help ourselves with our inability to create good scoring opportunities.
The hosts secured victory with Vincent’s second assist in the 78th minute. A piledriver from young midfielder George Dobson (a fellow Romford native of mine) left a helpless Woodman wondering where his defence had gone. Then, to cap off a farcical match, Walsall keeper Liam Roberts fired left-back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson’s back-pass into his own net off the post to gift us a consolation. I took no joy out of that after such a sorry display.
Our lead at the end of September had been trimmed to just a couple of points. Coventry were now just behind us and looking in fine fettle, which was more than could be said of former Sky Blues left-back Haynes…
That’s a problem. Galloway would be the only senior left-back available to us in October, though Beckles could still play there if he absolutely needed to. I would also consider giving 17-year-old Zac Hartley his first senior start in our next Pointless Trophy match.
ONE BAD APPLE
There always has to be one. I was trying to raise the players’ spirits before the new month by praising the team’s encouraging start to the season. Everyone agreed with that – except Ollie Norburn, who reckoned he wasn’t the only one who thought we could do better. Hmm… you might have to rethink that, Ollie.
Norburn might have joined Shrewsbury for a club-record fee last summer, but he’s emerged as the black sheep in this Salopian family. The holding midfielder is one of the least determined and most temperamental players in the squad, and his training performances are consistently amongst the lowest.
Early in the new season, I criticised Ollie for a particularly poor week’s training, and he got a strop on, so I dropped him from the team until he knuckled down. He didn’t take the hint, because a few weeks later, he got a training rating of 4.9 – the lowest I’ve had on FM19 so far. He received another tongue-lashing, which finally seemed to get something into the former Leicester trainee’s Harry Maguire-sized head.
Once Norburn started putting an acceptable effort in training again, he was restored to the line-up for the Walsall match. Though he lasted the full 90 minutes, he was noticeably off-colour and looked like he still had a lot of work to do. To be honest, I am fast running out of patience with him.
Hang on. You can still fine players for poor training performances in Football Manager, can’t you? You can’t? Shame.
And that brings me onto our first match in October. We played host to Mark Warburton’s Southend, who’d collected just three points from their first seven league matches, and then 10 from their next four. Indeed, the Shrimpers had not conceded a single league goal during that purple patch in September.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs SOUTHEND UNITED (League One, Match 12)
Well, I’m not sure how we failed to get anything from this match. Both teams played some attractive football and looked pretty solid at the back, and the statistics rightly suggested that it was a very even contest. Unfortunately, Southend managed to grab a goal on the break before grinding out a fifth consecutive clean sheet.
The Shrimpers had several first-half shots saved by Woodman, who was fast gaining a reputation for being one of the most dependable goalies in League One. They eventually found a way through eight minutes after the restart. Playmaker Oliver Shenton sent the ball down the left wing for Daniel James, whose looping low cross was then tucked away by experienced marksman Simon Cox.
There would be no fightback from the Shrews. Okenabirhie and Amadi-Holloway were ineffective up front, and their mid-half replacements Angol and Muirhead fared little better. Our most potent attacking threat was perhaps Gilliead, who was denied an 89th-minute equaliser by Ted Smith in the Southend goal.
Back-to-back defeats dropped us from 1st to 3rd, with Bolton and Coventry both overtaking us. Bolton were STILL undefeated, having somehow persuaded top-flight prospects Ademola Lookman and Sean Longstaff to help them get back out of League One. As things stood, I was not looking forward to our home match against the Trotters at the end of October.
WYCOMBE WANDERERS vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 13)
After our recent downturn, I made a few tactical tweaks before facing 16th-placed Wycombe at Adams Park. One of my biggest changes came up front, where I dropped Angol and instead started Amadi-Holloway as a lone pressing forward. After having his first shot saved by Ryan Allsop, Aaron got off the mark on 26 minutes, powering a low shot from Gnahoua’s through-ball underneath the keeper.
Though we managed to tame Wycombe’s beastly target man Adebayo Akinfenwa, one of their midfielders was proving harder to handle. Former Southampton youth Dominic Gape seemed to spend the entire match shooting hopefully from distance whenever the opportunity arose. The 25-year-old eventually lucked out in the 54th minute, as a 25-yarder crashed into the net off Woodman’s woodwork.
Akinfenwa was later replaced up front with Adam Campbell, who was denied a potential match-winner by Woodman in the 73rd minute. Ten minutes after that, a couple of Shrews substitutes helped turn the match in our favour. Mir was upended by Chairboys stopper Darius Charles, and playmaker Danny Redmond stepped up to drive in a fantastic free-kick for his first club goal.
That victory moved us back into the automatic promotion places, leapfrogging Coventry by a single point after they only managed a draw at lowly Bradford. We were still a point behind leaders Bolton, who’d piled further misery on Sunderland’s underachievers with a 4-1 win at the Stadium of Light.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs EVERTON UNDER-23s (EFL Trophy, North Group H – Match 2)
We took this Pointless Trophy match to Everton, only to have our defences breached after just 11 minutes. Left-winger Josh Bowler bowled us with a fantastic weighted ball that was finished by striker Bassala Sambou. Our man on the left wing put things right on the half-hour, as Redmond’s cross was volleyed home for a first senior Shrewsbury goal by 18-year-old Mwandwe.
Thanks largely to Redmond, we continued to make chances galore, but we simply couldn’t take them. Okenabirhie looked particularly low on confidence and was replaced at half-time with Muirhead, who was unfortunately denied his maiden Shrews goal by keeper Jack Barrett late on. I also gave a professional debut to 18-year-old centre-back Luke Ward in the closing stages.
With the scores locked at 1-1, we were again taken to a shoot-out for the extra point. Both teams were spot-on until Barrett saved our fourth penalty from Morris. The Toffees’ substitute striker Ellis Simms missed a chance to secure victory with their fifth spot-kick, but it didn’t matter in the end. Bolton failed to beat Barrett with our decisive penalty, and we had to settle for just one point instead of two.
Going into the final round of fixtures, Everton were top of the group with 5 points. We had 3 points and were above Salford on head-to-head, with Accrington bringing up the rear on 1. It was still anyone’s guess as to which two teams would qualify for the knockout rounds, but I wouldn’t have to worry about the permutations until we hosted Accrington a month later.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs PLYMOUTH ARGYLE (League One, Match 14)
After being rested for the previous two games, Angol returned at home to relegation-threatened Plymouth – and boy did he have quite a day! He got us off the mark after 14 minutes, chesting a left-wing cross from Kaikai before driving in a powerful left-footer.
Then, five minutes later, Lee lost his cool completely, sliding in late on Argyle midfielder Billy Bingham with both feet! The referee couldn’t get his red card out of his pocket quickly enough!
For all that, Angol copped himself a three-match ban, a one-week fine… and the ‘man of the match’ award. That perhaps tells you just how poor the remaining 70 minutes were.
Amadi-Holloway was brought on for Gilliead to take the vacancy up front, and the Welsh target man had chances to double our lead. He was unfortunate to be thwarted on each occasion by goalkeeper Luke Southwood, who deserved credit for almost single-handedly keeping Plymouth in the game.
At the other end, it was a sorry story for the Pilgrims, who rarely made their man advantage count. Galloway and Kane Wilson were both fantastic at full-back, helping to starve the visiting attackers of service.
SUNDERLAND vs SHREWSBURY TOWN (League One, Match 15)
Sunderland boss Roberto Di Matteo was coming under increasing scrutiny after a stuttering start to their league season. A 0-0 draw at the Stadium of Light can’t have helped matters as far as the 2012 Champions League winner was concerned. Mind you, I was similarly annoyed at full-time for a different reason.
Sunderland put together a couple of promising attacks early on before fading away just as quickly. Their frontman Charlie Wyke was having a miserable season, which only got worse about a minute into the second half. That was when Wyke inexplicably did an Angol, flying in two-footed on our captain Beckles. He too would receive a red down and head down the tunnel in disgrace.
We might have known how to defend a narrow lead with 10 men, but we weren’t so clued-up about scoring against a team with fewer players. Most of our outfielders had a go at goal, only to either horribly miss the target or see their shots stopped by Jon McLaughlin. The Mackems keeper was particularly impressive in the 64th minute, tipping behind Okenabirhie’s attempt before catching Beckles’ header from the subsequent Wilson corner.
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs ACCRINGTON STANLEY (League One, Match 16)
We lost just one home league game in the whole of last season. This term, we only went as far as mid-October before 18th-placed Accrington inflicted our second New Meadow loss in an absolutely infuriating match.
For starters, Accrington’s experienced Spanish keeper Fran Dorronsoro – who’d kept just three clean sheets thus far – was saving shots like a man possessed. Gnahoua was especially unlucky for us, having two efforts saved in the first seven minutes, and then another in the 39th. Amadi-Holloway was also thwarted twice, in either half.
Believe me, we did almost everything we could do without actually finding the back of the net. I got so desperate in the 70th minute that I threw on the in-form Under-18s striker Jamaine Turner to partner Aaron for the closing stages.
Turner’s only shot was blocked in the 89th minute by Stanley right-back Seamus Conneely, who then dealt us the cruellest blow deep into stoppage time. As young midfielder Scott Burgess unleashed a banana shot from distance, Conneely diverted it into the net from close range with an unstoppable half-volley.
Collins took that defeat so well that he announced his retirement plans shortly afterwards. To be honest, I was always expecting the 36-year-old to hang up his boots at the end of the season. He’s been declining steadily over recent months and is now – in terms of star ratings – only our fifth-best centre-back, behind even Galloway.
We remained in 2nd place, though Scunthorpe in 3rd had closed the gap to just a couple of points. As for Bolton, they saw off Milton Keynes 3-1 and arrived at New Meadow with a six-point lead, not to mention a 16-match unbeaten league start. [Gulp.]
SHREWSBURY TOWN vs BOLTON WANDERERS (League One, Match 17)
You’re joking, right? How can we be awful against Accrington and then brilliant against Bolton? Life’s never dull in Shropshire, that’s for sure!
Our dismantling of the Trotters’ unbeaten record began on 19 minutes. Centre-half Tosin Adarabioyo drove in his first Salop goal after Redmond’s free-kick had helpfully deflected off Bolton defender Josh Vela’s back. Edwards would also be celebrating seven minutes later, having clinically converted a penalty after Tosin was pushed by striker Christian Doidge.
Meanwhile, our other central defender Kyle Howkins and frontman Okenabirhie had goals chalked off for fouling an opponent and offside respectively. We could theoretically have been 4-0 up at half-time, but we went into the interval only holding a 2-1 lead. A frustrating afternoon for Howkins continued in the 39th minute, when his shove on Doidge gave away a penalty, which Sammy Ameobi confidently put away.
On another day, that might have kicked off a collapse. Instead, we continued to attack Bolton without any fear and reinstated our two-goal cushion after 65 minutes. Okenabirhie finally claimed a well-deserved goal when he beat an out-of-sorts Vela to head in a fantastic left-wing cross from Redmond.
We then completed a 4-1 win after some farcical Bolton defending. Fejiri crossed from the right wing to substitute Mir, whose header Ben Alnwick tipped against his bar. Right-back Callum Connolly then missed an interception before team-mate Vela’s attempted clearance deflected into the net off Rafa’s chest! The Spaniard’s maiden goal for the Shrews was certainly not the prettiest, but they all count!
Having given Bolton their first defeat back in League One, we moved to within three points of top spot. Scunthorpe and Mansfield were still breathing down our necks, though Milton Keynes had continued to fall away, while Rotherham fans were already fearing back-to-back relegations.
That would perhaps be a fitting note on which to end this chapter. However, there was one final twist just before Halloween…
TIPPING POINT
So… Norburn’s hurt his knee and will thus miss the whole of November. Of course, I thought of the obvious joke that the 27-year-old would do anything to avoid training. Naturally, I also thought that I should console Ollie and advise him to focus on his recovery.
Erm… wow. Whenever I’ve spoken to other players after serious injuries, they usually take my consoling words for what they are. Norburn construed them as being condescending.
You know what… I think I’m finished with this chancer. He’s lazy, arrogant, obnoxious, easily-offended, and he has all the personality of a typical Football Manager Reddit meme. He’s also earned himself a place on the transfer list. Good luck finding yourself another club in January, Ollie.
Thank you for reading this chapter… and thank you also to those who’ve messaged me recently. In case you didn’t know, I lost my grandfather last week, hence I had little motivation to play or write about FM for a few days. As such, story updates might be less frequent for a while, though normal service will hopefully resume soon.
I’ll be back next week with Part 4, when we finish off 2019 and I conduct my mid-season review. Will our recent inconsistent form continue, or will there be a bit more to smile about?
Fuller FM 
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