Shrewsbury v MK Dons preview: Salop searching for first home win

Last weekend’s defeat was a tough one to take for Salop fans. Not only were they horrific conditions to travel to North Yorkshire in, but the performance against was only marginally better.

They have had a full week on the training pitch to put that to one side as they, once again, go in search of a win in Shropshire, which will be the first home league win since February 1 when they beat Mansfield in League One with 10 men.

There have been very few bright points, but one of them has been the form of Sam Clucas since he moved out to play at left wing-back.

He scored against Barnet, albeit he has admitted he did not mean it, and then he scored again versus Salford.

He was signed to play in central midfield, and he is not overwhelmed by playing out wide - yet he will do it for the good of the team.

And he has found the change in position more challenging on his body.  

“My body's holding up really well,” Clucas said. “Touch wood.

“Hopefully, it'll continue. Obviously, when you get older, you more than likely get a few niggles. But no, it's been really good this year.

“I've noticed since I've gone left-wing-back, it demands more of you. When you play as a six, it's more like one pace than getting around the pitch. You seem to do more distance overall playing as a six, but less high-speed running, which probably suits my game, because that's me, just a long-distance runner.

“I can get around the pitch. But then at left-wing-back, it's more high-intensity runs. You don't necessarily do as much distance overall.

“It's certainly what the stats are showing anyway, because we get the stats after the game. My high speed has gone up a lot. It just brings up different physical attributes and different demands on the body.

“It's just adjusting to that, really. We've got really good sports science here, so they see that.

“That means I just have to do a bit more high-speed running in training and stuff like that, just to compensate and get my body used to that, because it is different demands on the body playing in different positions.

“It's not just long distance, just up and down. Like I say, it's getting up fast, and then if it's a turnover, I've got to get back fast. It's constantly high-speed, like accelerations and decelerations.”

Last weekend, Sam Stubbs and Tom Anderson, two summer signings, went off with injuries. After the match, Appleton said he did not expect Stubbs to be too bad, but they would need to wait a couple of days before they could understand the severity of Anderson’s calf problem.

With defending not being something the team did very well after they both left the field, they will hope the duo will be close to being fit for this one.