Shrewsbury Town’s decade in League One: Covid-19 curtails the 2019-20 season early
The 2019-20 campaign, overseen by Sam Ricketts, will be remembered largely for the wrong reasons, as the season ended prematurely due to the coronavirus.
Next up in the Shropshire Star’s look back on Salop’s 10 years in League One, is the campaign football stadiums were empty with the season ending with Shrews having 12 third-tier matches remaining.
Salop would have been pretty happy with their efforts up to March. They were sitting in 16th on 41 points, but they had at least one game in hand on most of the sides above them.
It started with a 1-0 home win against Portsmouth thanks to a 68th-minute winner from Ryan Giles, who was on loan from Wolves.
Salop’s league form was generally pretty consistent throughout the year, apart from a period between late December and mid-February, they didn't ever go too long without a third-tier win.
By the time the season ended Town, had won 10 matches, drawn 11 and lost 13.
The highlight of the campaign came once again in the FA Cup as Town made it to the fourth round for the second year running.
They had beaten Bradford over two legs, Mansfield, and Championship side Bristol City.
That led to a mouthwatering clash against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
After Town had gone 2-0 down in the clash, courtesy of Curtis Jones and a Donald Love own goal. Very few people could have predicted what would happen next.
Jason Cummings would write himself in the Salop history books with one of the most famous braces in the club's existence.
He was introduced to the action by Ricketts on the hour mark. Within five minutes of that, he had scored a penalty to halve the deficit, and just 10 minutes later, he sent the Meadow into complete meltdown when he scored his second with 15 minutes left on the clock.
That goal would be enough for Town to secure a replay and a trip to Anfield for the Shrewsbury fans to enjoy.
The replay came at the same time as the Premier League’s winter break, and speaking after the match, Klopp had hinted Liverpool would play a weakened team for the clash at Anfield.
They did just that as it was their youngster-ever starting lineup, with under-23s boss Neil Critchley taking charge of the side - they were missing 22 senior players for the game.
Shaun Whalley had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside before Ro-Shaun Williams headed the ball into his own net from Neco Williams’ long searching cross-field pass.
The win for Liverpool meant Town missed out on a fifth-round tie with Chelsea.
Salop’s last game before the season ended was against Oxford United at the Croud Meadow, which they lost 3-2.
The league was decided after the clubs voted in favour of a points-per-game method in June, with only the play-offs taking place behind closed doors.
It meant Salop fans had to wait until September when competitive football returned in 2020 when they made the trip to Middlesbrough in the league cup.
