Manager Paul Simpson today hailed his scintillating Shrewsbury side after the magnificent seven which secured their place in club history.

Town dramatically swept away a Gillingham team expected to be one of their chief rivals for League Two promotion with a stunning display in front of their own supporters on Saturday.

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The 7-0 triumph equalled the club’s biggest ever margin of victory in the Football League, a record dating back to 1955 when Walter Rowley’s team thumped Swindon by the same scoreline.

A string of other landmarks were also recorded on a memorable afternoon as Town provided the best possible response to last week’s 1-0 reverse at Morecambe.

And manager Paul Simpson admitted he couldn’t have demanded anything more from his team. “We asked for a reaction after the Morecambe defeat and we’ve had it in training all week,” said a thrilled Simpson. “I sometimes worry when you get that reaction in training because you sometimes don’t get that in the game – but it has happened and I’m delighted.

“We could have had more goals than the seven but that may have been a little greedy.

“It’s still only three points on the board but I am really chuffed as it was a really good team effort.

“This is a great result for us as I do think that Gillingham are a good side, but we made them look fairly poor.

“I’ve always known that we are a good side and it was a case of getting back to basics. We did that and got our rewards.

“We had a rocky start and were under some pressure for the first 20 to 25 minutes but after that we deserved it.”

Despite sending out a marker to the remainder of League Two and moving back up to fourth in the table, Shrewsbury this morning remained 9-2 second favourites to lift the title behind Bradford.

The magnificent facts:

• Saturday’s victory matched Shrewsbury’s biggest ever Football League victory, dating back to May 6 1955. Town beat Swindon 7-0 at Gay Meadow that day with Ray Weigh scoring four times, Alex McCue twice and William O’Donnell completing the rout.
• It was the 10th time Town had scored seven times in a Football League game.
• The last occasion was at Rochdale on February 24 2001 on the day Luke Rodgers scored a hat-trick. The last time Town bagged seven at home was in a 7-4 victory over Blackburn in 1974-5.
• Saturday represented the first time Shrewsbury had six different scorers in a Football League game.
• Saturday’s mauling didn’t represent Town’s biggest ever victory. That came courtesy of an 11-2 triumph over minnows Marine in the FA Cup first round in 1995.
• And finally, the last time Shrewsbury won a game 7-0, they went on to score 20 in three games. That Friday night victory over Swindon was followed by triumphs by 7-1 and 6-1 over Oswestry and Wellington in the Shropshire Senior Cup.

By James Garrison

See our photo gallery here

Shrews fans celebrate historic win

Read our Shrews blogger’s thoughts here