Town hit the headlines in the FA Cup for the second season running, but once again it was for all the wrong reasons, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.
Town failed to learn their lessons from losing to Blyth last season as they lost 1-0 at home to Staines Town in the first round of the competition.
Putting it simply – Town were poor, lethargic and underestimated their opposition. Bad luck didn’t come into it as we didn’t deserve to get anything from the game.
We had a strong enough side and enough senior players to win the game comfortably, but failed to take control of possession and rarely threatened their keeper.
Credit must go to Simpson for picking his strongest available eleven and being honest about his side’s performance.
Saturday also showed that we are still lacking in strength of depth at the back, especially with no quality cover for Holden at right back. I don’t want to be over critical of our youngsters, such as Harry Hooman, but he has got a lot to learn from games like Saturday.
Fears also grow about Kris Bright who is showing no kind of form and could go down as Simpson’s worst ever signing.
After a performance like this, it is very difficult to find any positives, but here goes: It was great to see Chris Neal back in goal and he had a decent game for what little he had to do. Now that Phillips has gone, Neal has a great chance to prove himself as number one, just as long as he stays injury free.
So Town’s cup dreams are over in a flash once again and it’s time to focus on the priority — which is the league.
Town need to rediscover the sort of form they showed against Notts County and get back to winning ways against Torquay on Saturday.
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4 Comments
I think that’s harsh on Kris Bright. He may well prove to be Simpson’s BEST ever signing over the course of the season…
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The players should be ashamed really, not just that they were playing a team from a lower league but that they just didn’t apply themselves. The team weren’t unlucky they have let the fans and the Manager down. What will their response be?. So come on lads, lets put it behind us and move on. The next six games unbeaten should be your challenge, then the fans will see just how committed to the cause you are.
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Was this blogger actually at the game? Credit must go to Simpson? Why exactly? We needed an injection of something different and there was nothing on the bench! We sent for Bright and Elder – neither of who are good enough for Staines’ level of football let alone ours. Simpson then says the players weren’t good enough – yet he signed them! Yes Hooman didn’t have his best ever game but I would much rather see him in the side than a journeyman pro who cares little about the club on a higher wage.
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I’d like to echo the point above. Was this blogger really at the game? At times we controlled possession well and we did test the keeper. Cup upsets happen – it’s just unfortunate this year it happened to us. We weren’t going to win it and now we can now concentrate on the league.
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