Paul Hurst: Shrewsbury's first game won’t be decisive
Boss Paul Hurst is out to buck his trend of opening-day disappointment as Shrewsbury Town kick off the new campaign.
While he guided former club Grimsby to a 2-0 success over Morecambe on their return to the Football League last season, it was his only opening victory in five attempts with the Mariners.
Town welcome Northampton Town to Montgomery Waters Meadow tomorrow as League One gets under way – and Hurst is after an almost perfect afternoon like he enjoyed last season.
“It was great to get off to a winning start,” said Hurst.
“The weather was good, we played well and got the victory. It would be great if we could do that tomorrow.
“In general I haven’t won that often on the opening day, I’ve had quite a lot of draws and there was probably a defeat at some point.”
Town opened their 2016/17 account with a 1-0 home defeat to MK Dons.
Hurst isn’t alone in wanting to improve his early-season record, Shrewsbury have not tasted an opening-day victory since 2010.
But the boss will not get caught up on over-egging the importance of day one.
He said: “You can go to work and have a bad day but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be bad for the next nine months.
“You can change things around. In a silly way it gives the players that justification and belief in what they’re doing.
“There’ll be a lot of losers on Saturday in all of the leagues and there’s certainly no point in getting the white flag out.
“I dare say there’s been teams that have lost on the first day and won promotion.”
Hurst is keen to maintain his impressive Meadow form this term. He added: “Last season, after January, we only lost either to teams who got promoted or were in the play-off spots, no-one else managed to beat us.
“If we could have a similar run again for a full season then we’d be in really good shape. It’s never nice when you lose on your home patch in front of your home fans. We want to try and make it a place where teams know what they’re in for.”
