Five talking points as Shrewsbury Town go six without win
Shrewsbury Town are still hunting their first win of the league campaign, here are five talking points as they go six without victory.
Lack of cutting edge
Goal-shy Shrewsbury won’t get anywhere quickly unless they start finding their scoring – or even shooting – boots.
Ollie Norburn and Shaun Whalley aside there was not nearly enough pressure on the Bristol Rovers goal.
Town have netted just the four goals in six league games, including a Whalley penalty, Lee Angol’s bizarre goal at Luton and an own goal.
John Askey’s men need more creativity from open play, more nous in the box and composure in front of goal.
Angol, Aaron Amadi-Holloway, Alex Gilliead and others must take this mantle on and run with it.
Opposition gifts
Askey’s men have given away four penalties in eight games in all competitions.
New signing Luke Waterfall has conceded three – and they have all been avoidable.
Town did not look at all troubled against a very limited Rovers side on Saturday until Waterfall was easily deceived by Ollie Clarke.
While Town are struggling for goals, they must ensure anything sloppy at the other end is cut out.
If they can grind out clean sheets, a goal at the other end may just get Askey’s men up and running.
Another impressive youngster
After academy graduate Ryan Barnett shone in the Checkatrade Trophy last week, it was the turn of right-back Ryan Sears to introduce himself in the absence of James Bolton.
Sears barely put a foot wrong on his solid Town bow, labelled ‘perfect’ by Askey.
The former AFC Telford loanee, 19, faces a battle with Bolton and new loanee Josh Emmanuel – who comes highly-rated from Ipswich – but he could hardly have had a better debut. Another credit to the academy.
Salop no-shows
Charlie Colkett, Kieran Kennedy and Doug Loft are the three of this summer’s 16 new additions that failed to make Askey’s squad on Saturday.
All three started for Town on the opening day against Bradford – as did Gas scorer Stefan Payne.
Chelsea loanee Colkett impressed, but has not been seen again and must be questioning his Shropshire switch. Kennedy, too, looked fairly solid.
Askey has a squad of 23 and has said decisions must be made.
But how close is he to making changes?
Pressure?
Askey reserved praise for the Town fans who, by large, continue to encourage the team from the stands.
There is no doubt, however, that the boss is feeling the pressure of supporters less than impressed with how his tenure has begun.
The boss and club’s hierarchy were, naturally, hoping for a smoother transition to retain a feel-good factor but, with the significant turnover this summer after handing Askey a three-year deal, the club will surely give the boss time yet to halt the slide
