Shrewsbury Town: Season review 2024-25
The 2024-25 season was a bleak one for Shrewsbury Town fans as they were comfortably relegated from the third tier of English football.
It started badly, and despite the occasional moment where Salop threatened something miraculous, it never looked like it was going to come and so they dropped into League Two for the first time in a decade.
With Shrewsbury’s financial restrictions, relegation was always possible, but their feeble attempt to resist it, only picking up 33 points, was perhaps the most disappointing thing about the whole sorry campaign.
Success
You will have to scratch your head for some time to try and find something good that came out of the season. With relegation, there is always negativity, but occasionally there are positives to talk about, but not in this case.
It is not a stretch to say that very little went well for Town in 2024-25, aside from their youngsters winning the Professional Development Trophy at the Cardiff City Stadium after the League One season came to an end.
Michael Appleton is in position, he is an experienced operator who will be well-placed to guide Town through the choppy waters they continue to navigate.
There were a couple of real high moments. Wins against Birmingham City, a team who lost just three times all season, in Gareth Ainsworth’s first game in charge.
Possibly the best moment of the season came when Town beat their cross-border rivals Wrexham 2-1 at the Croud Meadow to secure some local bragging rights.
But overall, these moments were few and far between.
Failures
If it was hard to find what went well, it certainly is not that difficult to find what went wrong. From a defensive standpoint, Shrewsbury leaked goals all season - they ended up conceding 79 times with a goal difference of -38. Only Crawley Town (83) and Peterborough (81) let in more.
Town managed to keep four clean sheets. One came during Toby Savin’s time in between the posts and the other three came after Jamal Blackman had joined the club in December.
Town lost a staggering amount of football matches throughout the campaign - 29 out of their 46 games - so it is not surprising they were virtually relegated with 10 games to go.
The summer recruitment in 2024 was fairly disastrous as Town hardly gave themselves the chance of survival, and their efforts in the winter window weren’t much better.
With the sale of Tom Bloxham, and their failure to replace him on deadline day, they inadvertently made themselves worse.
Managers
It was quite the year in the dugout for Salop. Having three different managers over the course of the season is never a sign of raging success and that certainly turned out to be the case.
Paul Hurst started the season in charge after keeping Town up the year before after taking over from Matt Taylor. But Town’s early season form was bleak and after one win in 12, he was dismissed after defeat in the first round of the FA Cup at Salford.
Mr Rock & Roll himself, Ainsworth turned up at the Croud Meadow not long after and captured the hearts of Town fans with an amazing first-game charge and his enthusiasm for the job despite their perilous position.
They briefly threatened a revival but when that looked no longer possible when he jumped ship to join Gillingham. After everything he said in press conferences and a boatload of promises broken, he left with his reputation among the Town fanbase in tatters.
That paved the way for Appleton to be appointed on an interim basis. He inherited an impossible job at the end of the season, which saw relegation confirmed.
He tried to bring more entertaining football for Shrewsbury fans as Salop attempted to restore some pride.
Off the field
There were as many issues off the field as there were on it. Financially, Shrewsbury managed to get a better grip on their finances, reducing losses from £3.1 million to £1.6 million in a year. However, they still found it difficult to compete with the financial might of the division and that could be seen in the on-field performances.
The biggest off-field disappointment was the supposed takeover with an American businessman that fell through after a period of exclusivity ran out. Essentially, it was six months wasted, and it meant Town went back to the drawing board as chairman Roland Wycherley continues to look for someone to buy the Shropshire club.
There was an issue on the buyer's side, but either way, it did not look for Shrews as frustrations towards the chairman and director of football Micky Moore were on show in the stadium more and more as the season came to a close.
What next?
Well, right before the final game Town announced that Michael Appleton had signed a two-year contract keeping him in Shropshire until 2027.
Right from the moment Appleton was appointed by Town he made it clear he wanted to be back in football management for the beginning of the 2025-26 campaign.
The former Lincoln and Blackpool boss is an experienced operator and is a reliable pair of hands for Town as they look to rebuild heading into their League Two campaign.
They have also made a steady start to their summer recruitment securing the services of Tom Anderson, who got promoted from League Two with Doncaster and Sam Clucas who has made just under 500 professional appearances including a big spell in the Premier League.
The hope for Shrewsbury is that after a rocky couple of years, they can consolidate and build in the fourth tier.
