Bradford City test will see Shrewsbury Town at their best
Defender Toto Nsiala is certain a visit of one of League One’s big guns will bring the best out of Shrewsbury Town.
Bradford City’s trip to Montgomery Waters Meadow on Saturday sees first welcome fifth as Town bid to extend their unbeaten home league run, which stretches back to April, and their lead at the summit.
Nsiala, 25, also wants to see a response from his team-mates after a disappointing midweek reversal at basement boys Bury.
The ex-Everton trainee reckons that the anticipated clash is a perfect opportunity for Paul Hurst’s men.
“It’s a massive game,” admitted Nsiala. “We’ve all got to give a big performance, every single one of us, and see where it takes us.
“We’ve had big games like this at home, like Wigan, and I know it’s a bad thing to say but we seem to perform and do well in games like this, so I’m hoping we do the same.”
The defender, who has excelled at the heart of Hurst’s defence so far this season, added: “We’ll go back to the training ground and move on from it (the Bury defeat).
“That’s where you’ve got to give credit to Doigy (assistant Chris Doig), the lads and everyone around the club.
“We move on quick, take every game as it comes, put this behind us and go again on Saturday.”
Town’s 1-0 Gigg Lane defeat meant the lead over second-placed Wigan was cut to a single point.
Nsiala believes that a true reflection of the League One rankings will begin to form in the new year, once the January transfer window has passed.
He said: “I’m not going to lie, I don’t really enjoy being top as much as everyone thinks. It’s a long season, we want to see where we are at the end of January, see what we’ve got because you don’t know what’s going to happen.
“If we’re still up there, then I’ll start being a bit happier and enjoying it more.”
And while the popular Town stopper was disappointed with just a second league defeat on the campaign, he believes Shrewsbury are still on the right track.
“If this is our down time or poor few games then I’ll happily take this,” he said “We’re not going to win every game, we’re going to have ups and down - we’ve had more ups than downs.”
