'Roar us to safety' says Shrewsbury Town Supporters' Parliament duo

The duo, key figureheads behind the group’s move to bring pioneering safe standing to Montgomery Waters Meadow last summer, insist that supporters can play a key role in helping Sam Ricketts’ team over the line.

Town have a crunch home game on Saturday against managerless and out-of-sorts Scunthorpe, on the back of their vital away win at Southend.

The club are selling safe standing South Stand tickets at £5 each to encourage fans to pack out the section of 550 rail seats behind the goal to help the atmosphere reach fever pitch.

The Meadow atmosphere has felt a real injection of noise since the introduction of safe standing last summer.

Town fans Groves and Davis were recently named League One supporters of the year by the EFL and will represent Shrewsbury Town in the EFL Awards at London’s Grosvenor Hotel on Sunday where they go up against their Championship and League Two counterparts for the national award.

But their only focus is on making the Meadow a place for Scunny to fear on Saturday as 15th hosts 19th in the tight relegation scrap.

“We have a very big part to play as supporters and we can get on the front foot with it, make it a cauldron,” said SP joint-chairman Groves.

“It has been quite bizarre (at home recently). Beating Wycombe felt like a defeat and the Portsmouth loss felt like we’d done well.

“The Scunthorpe game is key. Let’s try to get that carnival atmosphere without taking our eye off the job in hand. We can play our part, get behind the team. Anything we get away is a bonus but we can play our part quite definitely.

“Wycombe was toxic, nobody wants to hear it but it was. The Portsmouth game saw effort and desire to win.”

Fellow chairman Davis, pictured below right with chief executive Brian Caldwell and Groves, added: “Our key aim is do what we can with the fans to improve the atmosphere to help the team stay up. I don’t care whether that’s through good performances or scrappy 1-0s.

“Everyone can regroup in the summer and go again. Whether we stay up or go down it doesn’t change it for us! We’ll look for the next project...”

Safe standing, funded mostly through crowd-funding, was officially launched on August 4 against Bradford, where Salop became the first team in England and Wales to introduce the choice to stand at all-seater stadia.

The move brought media attention from far and wide to Shrewsbury – and continues to do so. Davis and Groves recently gave interviews to Brazilian and Norwegian press.

On the field things have been disappointing, but Town’s unique stadium addition has been anything but.

“It’s about the atmosphere and the choice,” added Groves, who stands at the rear of the South Stand with Davis. “The atmosphere we created by the move has been fantastic. I hope the manager and players appreciate that and can feel the difference. It could play a key part between now and the rest of the season.”

Davis added: “If you speak to the majority of fans they’ve said it’s made a massive difference.

“It’s the dynamic of the stadium and the atmosphere. There’s still vocal support in blocks 18 and 19 but there’s also a very vocal area behind the goal.

“It seems to make a massive difference to the atmosphere within the stadium.”

The Supporters’ Parliament meets every few months with Groves, Davis and others in regular contact with chief executive Brian Caldwell and the club’s media staff to suggest new ideas.

“The very first game, Bradford, was a great atmosphere. It was fantastic and that’s due to the people there,” said Groves.

“We’ve got the drum and we’ve personalised it with the banners, flags and other things. All credit to the club, they’ve never said we can’t do anything

.”

Davis said: “We’re in continued contact about day-to-day stuff, ticket prices, new kits, stuff that flies under the radar.

“Rog is looking at whether we can do anything with safe-standing in the away end but they’re all things to sit down and talk about.”

Groves and Davis put in countless hours on top of their own careers to assist the club in a number of ways. The club nominated the duo to be in the running for this year’s award.

Their dedication will be celebrated and – hopefully – rewarded on a national scale on Sunday night in the capital.

“I don’t know if there is a trophy! It was surreal to find out, we were over the moon,” added Groves.

“I’d love us to win it for the fans and the club. Sometimes we don’t appreciate the interest out there, but it’s really, really big.”