Declan Allen’s Shawbury aces heading in the right direction

Prior to the cancellation of the West Midlands League Premier Division, 15th-placed Shawbury had put their tricky league start behind them and were beginning to build momentum.

Looking back at the season, Allen conceded that his young charges took time to find their feet but, ultimately, he was encouraged by the players’ progression.

“It was a progressive campaign,” he said. “At the start of the season, there was an overhaul of the squad and we only retained three players.

“We did take a couple of months to get going. They took longer to adapt than we would have liked, but it was a learning curve for the lads.

“A lot of the players had never played at this level, we drafted them in from Sunday league football and from the lower leagues.

“Not only that, but we also have a lot of young players, 80 per cent of the squad are under 20-years-old.

“It took them a while to settle into the league and start playing the way that myself and the staff wanted them to play.

“It’s a shame that the season ended when it did, as we were hitting form, showing a bit of consistency and had started picking up results.”

One such performance came in the 2-1 win over second-placed Bewdley, an outstanding victory which Allen pinpointed as the result of the season.

However, Allen also praised his side’s display in their first match of the season when his newly-formed group claimed a memorable draw away at Wolverhampton Casuals.

“I would say Bewdley,” he said. “That game we fully deserved the victory, and it was nice that the opposition acknowledged the fact that we were worthy winners.

“It was without a doubt our most complete performance of the season.

“But second to that, would be the opening day 0-0 draw away at Cassies. It was our first game together as a group.

“So to go there against such a strong side and get a point on their patch, it sort of set us a benchmark but unfortunately, we couldn’t kick on.”

Allen and his assistant Sean Evans have taken great pride watching the team mature this year and Allen is keen to highlight it has been a collaborative effort.

“It would be unfair to single out anyone for individual praise,” he said. “I think everyone has improved.

“We’ve had players leave, but the 13 or 14 lads that stuck with us, really bought into the ideas that we were putting across to them.

“They showed the benefits of sticking with us and they were really starting to gel together.”

As for the FA’s decision to cancel the season, Allen admitted that his side were largely unaffected by it but felt for those teams occupying loftier positions in the table.

“From a personal point of view, the decision didn’t affect us either way,” he said. “It didn’t look like we would be relegated and we weren’t pushing for promotion.

“I feel for those in the top six who were fighting for promotion, the likes of Shifnal and Bewdley, who will have to do it all again next season.

“But a decision had to be made, whether it was made too soon, we will find out over the coming months.”

Off the field, United are expected to make a welcome return to the village of Shawbury for the start of the 2020/21 campaign, having spent the last couple of seasons playing in Ludlow.

And in that respect, Allen looks upon the season’s premature end as a positive and a timely boost towards building Shawbury’s new home.

“It’s allowed for more time in terms of planning for the stadium,” he said.

“This period away may help. We can develop aspects of the ground that maybe we wouldn’t have had time to go over had we still been playing.

“We’ve already begun the conversations on next season, how we will be looking to recruit.

“Over the next week or so, we will be laying out plans on where we need to strengthen, the areas we need to improve on.

“It may be uncertain as to where we stand in the league, but as a club things are only looking up.”