For the second year running Shrewsbury have started the season with a 4-0 win - though it is to be hoped that is where the comparisons with the 2007-08 campaign end, writes Chris Hudson.
But what happened last time after that bright start, when they won by the same scoreline at Lincoln, should serve as a salutary warning of how dangerous it is to get carried away with one result. 
See our match photo gallery here
Boss Paul Simpson was quick to stress in the aftermath of this rout how there is a lot of hard work ahead and insisted no-one at the Prostar Stadium will be getting too excited.
But today is not the time for any negative thoughts - and every Town player deserves to be praised for the sparkling display they produced.
Expectation levels have rightly been high after all the money that has been invested in the team and the encouraging results they have produced in pre-season.
But they showed in this 90 minutes that they can definitely deliver. The only trick now will to be to do it on a consistent basis.
Pretty much from the first whistle, Town looked a class above their visitors from Macclesfield - to the extent that this could have been a cup-tie against a side from a lower level.
And that is not meant as a criticism of Macclesfield, but more as praise at the heights Shrewsbury were able to reach.
They dominated from pretty much the first whistle to the last, sweeping forward in wave after wave of attack without ever looking like leaving themselves exposed at the back.
Ben Davies went close with a 30-yard strike that struck the net-support post and ricocheted behind the goal, the net rippling and deceiving hundreds of fans in the South Stand into thinking it was in.
Full-back Ben Herd, who put in a great shift overlapping on the right, also whipped in an inch-perfect cross for Grant Holt. His downward header looked in all the way but keeper Jon Brain did wonderfully well to get down and hold onto it.
Davies went close again midway through the first half after a howler by Brain, who rushed out of his box and lost possession.
The grateful Town skipper curled a shot in, but centre-back Richard Walker saved his keeper’s blushes with a marvellous diving header to direct the ball over the bar.
The pressure had to tell, though, and it was Shane Cansdell-Sherriff who finally found the way - though his effort will probably be chalked up as an own goal.
His snorting strike beat Brain all ends up, but came back off the bar, only to hit the luckless keeper in the back and bounce in.
It got better after the break as Town got the goals their superiority deserved.
If Macclesfield had talked in the interval about how to turn it around, then their plans would have been in tatters when the hosts made it two less than five minutes after the re-start.
Davies went down under a challenge from Paul Morgan and, though the contact looked minimal, Holt was not complaining as he lashed home the resulting penalty.
The Silkmen threatened just once to fight back, Danny Thomas pulling a save out of rookie keeper Luke Daniels just past the hour mark.
But it was Shrewsbury who always looked like adding more goals - Holt going close with a terrific angled drive from 25 yards that arrowed a hair’s breadth wide of the post.
In the end it was Graham Coughlan who got the third - and tried to claim the fourth, too.
He headed in off a Kevin McIntyre corner and then rose unchallenged again to nod goalwards off a Davies flag kick just five minutes later, sub Dave Hibbert back-heeling it over the line.
All-in-all, a very impressive start. If Town weren’t already grabbing the attention of their League Two rivals then they certainly will be now.
On this showing, though, they can handle the pressure and the expectation.
MATCH FACTS:
TOWN: Daniels, Herd, Jackson, Coughlan, Tierney, Davies, Cansdell-Sherriff, Murray (Hindmarch 71), McIntyre, Holt (Humphrey 86), Walker (Hibbert 67). Subs not used: Garner, Langmead. Booked: None.
MACCLESFIELD: Brain, Brisley, Deen, Hessey (Reid HT), Walker (Yeo 77), Morgan, Tolley, Dunfield, Thomas, Gritton, Green (Evans 63). Subs not used: Bell, Flynn. Booked: Hessey (18) - foul on Davies, Walker (43) - bringing Holt down on the halfway line, Yeo (83) - dissent.
REFEREE: Phil Gibbs (Warwickshire).
ATTENDANCE: 5,812 (355 from Macclesfield).
GOAL LOG
1-0 Brain OG (30) - a fabulous 30-yard strike from Cansdell-Sherriff hit the bar and then bounced out and in off keeper Brain’s back.
2-0 Holt (50pen) - sent Brain the wrong way from 12 yards after Davies was adjudged to have been brought down by Morgan.
3-0 Coughlan (79) - powered a header in at the far post off McIntyre’s corner from the right.
4-0 Hibbert (84) - well positioned to backheel in Coughlan’s header off Davies’ corner from the left.
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