Sliding Town ‘still buoyant’
Friday 29th February 2008, 11:40AM GMT.
Shrewsbury Town head to Barnet for tomorrow’s clash between League Two’s most out-of-form sides with boss Gary Peters insisting: “The players are still buoyant.”The Bees have lost five consecutive games and are now hovering just six points above the relegation zone.
But they preceded that alarming slump with eye-catching wins over promotion contenders MK Dons and Hereford, while Shrewsbury are having a tough time themselves – having picked up just six points from the last 11 games.
Peters is taking nothing granted ahead of the trip to Underhill, declaring: “They’re due for a change and we don’t look at statistics like that.
“If someone says they have lost five in a row then I’d say they must be due for a win soon.”
But he added: “We think we’re playing better, though doing that and winning are two different things and we’ve got to make sure we grind out a result.
“The players are buoyant and they’re not getting their heads down. They realise they’re in a transitional stage and trying to play more of a passing game than last season.
“At the start of the season we were not playing as well as we are now, but we were still picking up points.
“We’re trying to make ourselves a more attractive team but it’s easier to be more consistent with the way we were playing last season.
“You can see that if you look at Hereford. In the game with ourselves last Saturday they played good football, but they’ve also had games like Chesterfield (which they lost 4-0) and Dagenham (a 1-0 defeat on Tuesday) where they’ve been awful.”
Meanwhile, Barnet are looking to the loan market to try and end their recent run of defeats, with a number of high profile targets being pursued.
Town boss Peters has been critical of the loan system since last weekend’s 2-1 defeat to a Hereford side who have seven temporary signings in their squad.
But Barnet counterpart Paul Fairclough appears to have no such qualms.
He has made enquiries about West Ham’s England under-19s hotshot Freddie Sears and Charlton marksman Izale McLeod, who was one of League Two’s hottest properties last season when at MK Dons.
“We are actively pursuing the matter and are waiting to hear about our approaches for other players,” said Fairclough.
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I have not been to the recent matches, but was intrigued to read GP’s statement that the side were switching from the long ball tactics to a passing style. I am interested to know if this is true? Has our style changed? or is this more GP mumbo jumbo.
Personally, i find this to be an odd statement to have come out with. It is an admission that we were playing long ball fottball in the first half of the season – something i wrote fequently about in these blogs, but GP frequently denied at the time, despite the comments of departed players.
However, if it is true, then i back the policy 1000% and GP get’s my backing. I’m prepared to give it time. Writing off the early part of the season as a tactical error is OK if we learn from it, change and improve. It’s disappointing, but that’s life.
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Shrewsbury town going DOWN
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While Gary Peters criticises Hereford United and their loan signings he should at the same time study the League Two table, with Hereford in second place and Shrewbury 14th – and sliding lower. You have to admire Graham Turner and his ability to put a team together from scratch, even if they are loanees, while Shrewsbury pick up a couple of players from the Blue Square championship. The result? Hereford are rising and Salop failing. Fans will drift away from the New Meadow in droves unless there’s a quick turnaround. Hereford are heading for League One while Shrewsbury could be fighting to stave off relegation, so who’s got the right approach,Turner or Peters? The results speak for themselves. Turner’s quality loanees have delivered the goods in results while Shrewsbury’s squad fail, time after time – six points from the last 33 tells its own sorry story. Who’s to say that Hereford’s loanees may not be full-time players with the Bulls once promotion is secured anyway?. Peters’ logic, like his team, is confused and fragile.
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barnet 4 town 1, this was utterly disgraceful and we now face a battle to stay in the league, if this form continues, get a grip gp.
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If Shrews go down they will have a rough time getting out the blue sq becuase they will have teams like AFC Telford, Kettering Town, Stafford Rangers, Histon, Oxford utd and no offense to the shrews but i think that they will have to go 2 part time, to deal with the financial loss of season ticket sales and the prediction for the highest attendence will be against Telford
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