Luck was once again absent for Town on Saturday as our away hoodoo continued with a 3-1 defeat to Luton, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.
The result could so easily have been different – and a team that hit the bar twice and had an effort cleared off the line can count itself unfortunate.
Despite this, we conceded some sloppy goals and missed a host of good chances. Conceding three has been virtually unheard of for us this season and it is something that we don’t want to get in a habit of doing.
Simpson was right in saying that we are being punished for every mistake we make at the moment, including not taking our chances in front of goal.
And it seems even Holt is having a run in front of goal where nothing is going right, adding more pressure on the others to step up to score.
I think one of the problems with our inconsistency is that Simpson has been unable to pick the same eleven for a run of games, for various reasons including suspensions, injuries and poor form. This affects most teams and I don’t know if Simpson knows his best eleven players even at this point in the season.
Remarkably we are still fourth in the table, although a lot of the promotion-chasing teams have got games in hand. All teams go through bad runs at some point of the season – just look at Wycombe who were unbeatable for so long.
Let’s hope our other promotion rivals go through their bad run at towards the end of the season.
It’s quite simple: if the club are really serious about getting promotion they need to sort themselves out mentally sooner rather than later. Anything other than promotion this season will be seen as a disappointment, especially given the money we have spent on new players, the new stadium and getting a top class manager like Simpson.
Will we really be able to hang on to Simpson and players like Holt and Davies if we fail to go up? What do fans think?
Town’s next four games include teams such as Macclesfield, Notts County and Aldershot who are in the wrong half of the table and considering are position, only maximum points will do.
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9 Comments
A bad run? Our away form is a bad run which has lasted all season. All teams do go through bad runs but ones that last all season should not be associated with teams who seriously want to mount a promotion challenge.
Be realistic, play offs at best and if Wembley is classed as an away day we haven’t got a hope in hell.
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Im a Luton fan and watched the game on Saturday, and was impressed with Shrewsbury’s work rate. The man who shone for me above all others was Humphreys. He put in a premiership performance for you on Saturday. Wish you all the best and thanks for the three points we needed them.
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Let’s all stop kidding ourselves and admit to the obvious, we are just not good enough to go up. Our away form is embarassing and at home we have played poorly and won but have been found out by good footballing sides such as Brentford.
We have not looked good since Sean Thornton’s brief loan spell which only confirms my belief that midfield weakness is a major problem.
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If we don’t beat Macclesfield….I don’t know what I’ll do…..but I’ll do it…..probably….
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deegee550 is right. Since the departure of Sean Thornton and his Icelandic replacement, the Town have lost their way.It’s hard to see them finding replacements of the same caliber.
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‘Luck’ had nothing to do with it, the better team won on the day. The team have no one to blame but themselves.
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this may seem a bit stupid but i do not think lady luck will return to the team until someone high up in the club realises changing the club badge was a monumental disaster. to bring in a lenny the lion badge and worse still omit that famous battle cry floreat salopia, was a crass error of judgement. let it be known that something like the old badge will be returned to the club and the players will again try to play for their shirts and club.
as for macclesfield oh 1-0 to the shrews, perhaps the team have an inkling about the badge. with teams around us losing points, witness wycombe wobblers dropping 2 at home last night, town’s season may be just starting! floreat salopia and amwythig am byth, in short BELIEVE
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You’re right Devon, it is a bit stupid, as I’m not sure that reinstating a latin phrase to the club crest will have any effect on the players of STFC whatsoever.
The vast majority of them were probably born outside of Shropshire and may not even reside here, even though they play for STFC, so they are unlikely to swell with Salopian pride when they pull on the shirt.
It’s also highly probable that as professional footballers some of them might struggle with English, let alone Latin, so wouldn’t know what it meant and wouldn’t bother to find out.
Unless you were brought up in Shropshire or know Latin you are unlikely to know what ‘Floreat Salopia’ means. Doubtless there will be other counties who have Latin phrases on their crest, but do you know what they mean in English?
I’d suggest the phrase ‘your contract expires at the end of the season’ is far more likely to inspire the average professional footballer…
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the answer to shrewsbrys poor away form is easily solved send the reserve side they are top of the league and scoring lots of goals
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