Underdogs Shrewsbury Town need to upset odds to be successful – Paul Hurst
Shrewsbury manager Paul Hurst believes his side will have to cause several ‘mini-upsets’ if they are to have a successful League One campaign.
Following successive seasons keeping their heads above the water and surviving the drop by the skin of their teeth, Town hope for a smoother ride in Hurst’s full debut season.
But the boss believes that, despite sides such as Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United securing promotion last season, League One has become tougher.
Former Premier League sides Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic join Town in the third tier, while ex-top flight club Portsmouth arrive from League Two, alongside recent Championship outfit Doncaster Rovers and well-supported Plymouth Argyle.
With Town set to handle the underdog status going into the season, which kicks off on August 5, Hurst concedes his side will have to upset the odds to achieve.
“It’ll be extremely tough,” Hurst said. “You look at it and try and think ‘who can we be better than?’ but ultimately it’s not played out on paper, we know that.
“Over the course of the season, in my opinion, we’ve got to be causing mini-upsets and if we can do that then we can have a successful season.”
He added: “At the LMA course I’m on there’s been talk about the strength of the leagues. Some have got slightly weaker but ours has certainly got stronger.
“We’ve lost two teams in Sheffield United and Bolton, who were very big favourites to go up – but any team coming down from the Championship now will have a really good chance of winning promotion back up.
“Coming up you’ve got three teams, Portsmouth a really big club, Doncaster only just out of League One and also the Championship not so long ago and Plymouth are a very well supported team and have advantage when teams go there at least.”
