Shrewsbury Town Women set to show what they can do at the Meadow

Salop will play their West Midlands League Premier Division match against Shifnal Town on the hallowed turf at the Meadow tomorrow afternoon, with a 2pm kick-off.

It is the first time the club’s women’s team will play a match on the main stadium pitch and the director of football Hudson-Jones is excited by the occasion.

She said: “This is fantastic. A lot of effort has gone on behind the scenes, and we have done everything we can to make this a very good family day.

“We have the mascots and flag bearers, we are running a competition for some of the fans to really get involved on a match day.

“The players really spend a lot of time after the games and we really want them to get involved with the fans.

“It is to raise the exposure and to give female football fans, or football fans in general, that have never been to a female football game to give it a go and see if they enjoy it.

“We have a quality team full of really quality players, and it is a great platform for them as well.

“So some of them have never played at a stadium before never mind somewhere like the Croud Meadow. It is a great opportunity to showcase themselves.”

Hudson-Jones is a former Villa player as well as director of football at Stoke City. She has been in charge of putting together the structure of the women’s team at Shrewsbury Town this season, and she says they have had a good season on the pitch.

“We have had a lot of changes from the top to the players,” she added. “So I think it has been a massively transitional year, but with new staff with different ideas and change it is hard to pick the best strategy and game plan.

“But I think we have done really well. We are currently sitting fourth, but we have three games in hand on the teams above who are just three points ahead of us.

“I would be really chuffed if we can finish second or third in the league.

“That is absolutely doable and then we are in the Thomas Farmer Challenge Cup final in May.

“At the start of the season, we took the women’s team away from the men’s team so it is a separate entity, but we still want to have that really strong link.

“A main thing here was to be able to have access to the stadium.

“We would have liked to have played on it a lot more this season and hopefully we will be able to next season.

“But it has been something that we have been thinking about since the start of the campaign and it is just about getting the right fixture as well.

“And hopefully the weather is going to be a little bit warmer and that creates a better atmosphere and environment for the players and the fans that come.”

It is continued exposure for the women’s team and the club also hosted an international fixture back in September when England Under-23s played at the Meadow.