Manager Gary Peters today hailed 2007 as the “most exciting year” in Shrewsbury Town’s history.
Peters believes that the move to a new 10,000-seater stadium, coupled with the trip to Wembley for the League Two play-off final, has provided Shrewsbury with a thrilling 12 months.
But he admits a “could do better” analysis must be placed against the opening half of this season which has left Town some way short of pre-season promotion expectations.
“People have got to start looking back at 2007 and I don’t think in the history of Shrewsbury Town, anyone could have asked for a more exciting year,” he said.”We have moved to a brilliant new ground and have got to Wembley which was a day out for the whole town.
“There were 63,000 people there, which is a record for the League Two play-off final.
“Losing that day was devastating but having that experience of things happening is part of the reason we are getting so much stick when we are not doing so well now, because people are expecting it all the time.
“On the pitch we have raised expectations by getting to Wembley and off the pitch the directors have raised expectations by moving to a new ground.
“What has happened in 2007 has set the expectations for what people are looking for in 2008.”
Peters, however, admits Town must look back on their performance in the 2007-8 campaign with some frustration.
They entered this afternoon’s trip to Peterborough in 10th position, five points off the play-off places and 10 adrift of the top three.
“If you were doing a school report you would say could do better,” added Peters.
“We have been in the top half of the table virtually all season, even though we had a nightmare month in October and been a bit erratic.
“But there are still teams above us who shouldn’t be.
“We hope we will do better in the second half of the season because we have got three players back in Andy Cooke, Ben Davies and Luke Jones.
“Even if we don’t manage to bring players in during January - and we hope to - then we should be stronger because of that.”
2 Comments
Well sorry but 1979 was much better and we were promoted to the equivalent of 2 divisions higher ! We did go to wembley & it was great but, we lost. Marvellous to have a new ground but in terms of actual success I have witnessed more satsifying seasons…Happy New Year to all Salop fans.
let us hope gp brings in at least 2 defenders and 1 up front, as although january to september were historic and memorable, since then we have proved we can beat 10 men teams but appear out of our depth against the top 4 teams in the league.
it is no good reaching the play offs, if we cannot hold our own in a higher division
i see us ending the season in about 12th place unless there is a dramatic improvement in results. i insist we have the right manager, so gary keep eating those beans on toast,invest in 3 more players and give the squad a good root up the fundamentals if felt necessary.
happy new year to players,management and supporters. floreat salopia from deepest devon