Salop Social: Shrewsbury Town will have to slay a few big beasts next season

Chris Hudson

Shrewsbury will be going about their business in the land of the sleeping giants next season.

The list of clubs who will be making the trip to Montgomery Waters Meadow in 2021/22 reads like a who’s who of former greats who have fallen on tough times.

Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich Town, Portsmouth, Charlton Athletic, Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic are all among the big beasts who will be plying their trade in League One.

You can maybe add Sunderland to that mix, too, depending on how their play-off campaign goes. Don’t rule out Derby County, either – they did the bare minimum to survive on the pitch, but could yet be scuppered by a points deduction for financial issues.

These clubs are at this level through their own failings, but all of them will want to get back to the Championship as soon as possible. You’d imagine most of them would be contenders.

We’re told Steve Cotterill has big ambitions to have Salop in the mix as well. At times in the weeks after he took over, it looked like we were ready to challenge right now, but in the end the limitations of our squad were rather exposed.

He will have to call on all of his fabled powers to get this footballing David to compete with these mighty Goliaths. I cannot wait to see him try.

Keeping Shaun Whalley was a good start. We’ll need a fair few new faces who can have a similar impact if we want to be a genuine force. It promises to be a busy summer.

Steven Jones

A few weeks ago, Aaron Wilbraham revealed Steve Cotterill’s message to the players during a half-time talk: “Stop giving yourselves a mountain to climb.”

It had been another match when the opposition scored first. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because it happened 22 times this season.

Concerningly, Shrewsbury only recovered from going behind on six occasions. And only in one of these games – Sunderland at home – were they able to fully complete the turnaround and win.

Now, every team concedes goals and While Shrewsbury have relied on a strong defence relative to their attack in recent seasons, there will be occasions when the opposition score first. Steve Cotterill must look at improving what happens next in those situations.

The answer surely lies in attack. Town generally haven’t scored many at this level and that needs to change.

Just four of their 13 wins came by a margin greater than a single goal and they only scored more than once in six of them.

When it’s hard enough to score one goal, scoring two really is like climbing a mountain.

Nathan Rowden

I let out an audible sigh of relief when the final whistle went at Gresty Road at the weekend. Shrewsbury Town’s League One campaign had finally come to a close.

I usually hate the lack of football in the summer. But this has felt like a long, arduous season, for reasons we all know which stretch way beyond what has happened on the field.

I know we should be thankful to stay in the league, but I have found it hard to get up for a season which saw Town rather dully cement a 17th place finish – despite some ambitions for a higher mid-table positioning at one point.

I can’t really even bring myself to consider many highlights because even when the results went right, it was really hard to manufacture any visceral emotion of being in the ground.

Football should be entertainment, it should be fun and an escape from the everyday trials and tribulations of life. But the version of the sport we all love has been anything but this season.

You may notice I don’t focus too much on the tactical side of the game. The reason. I don’t like football in its purest form. What I love is the people, the experience, the stories from random fans you’ve never spoken to before, the copious amounts of beer, the journey to and from the grounds.

Whether Shrewsbury win or lose in many ways is incidental. Yes, it’s good to see us play well, and can be frustrating when we don’t, but ultimately it’s not what I pay for, really.

It’s not just the players who need a break, we fans also really need to have some time to switch off. I’m relishing the chance to forget about football for a few weeks and come back re-energised for the new season, and I’m sure I’m not alone.