Town failed to pull off a cup upset but the players had a lot to be proud of, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

A fantastic stadium, great atmosphere, big performance, and being one of about 5,000 travelling fans made me proud to be a Salopian.

In the end the players put so much effort into the first half against Arsenal they had ran out of steam by the second period and the fitness levels between the two teams told.

And who knows if Town had taken more of their first half chances then things could have been so different.

The players certainly didn’t disgrace themselves and for me the stand-out performers were the two centre backs.

Back in the league I was worried Town’s exploits in the week may have affected their performance against Torquay on Saturday.

But an early goal from Collins certainly eased those concerns and we went on to pick up an impressive victory against a team who I expect to see challenging for promotion this season.

Another positive from the weekend’s game was that we kept a clean sheet which have been rare this season.

As well as scoring plenty of goals, a promotion-winning side need to keep things tight at the back and hopefully we will see them become more of a regular thing.

It would be nice to get our centre backs fit and playing regularly.

At the beginning of the season I did have concerns that our team lacked a striker capable of scoring more than 20 goals this season, but all our forwards have looked sharp this season and look more than capable of reaching double figures.

Town will be looking to continue their good run with victory against high-flying Southend on Friday who have also made an impressive start to the season.

I think most fans would agree a draw would be a good result.