Shropshire Star

Captain Luke Leahy leads by example in Shrewsbury player ratings

Shrewsbury’s second-highest finish in the last 33 years had hopes of a play-off push before injuries caught up with them in the final few months of the season.

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Luke Leahy and Christian Saydee led the Shrewsbury Town player ratings, while Chey Dunkley was a tower of strength at the heart of Salop’s defence (AMA)

Steve Cotterill’s side finished 12th in League One. Even on the last day of the season at Lincoln they harboured hopes of a top-10 finish – but it was not to be.

The league table perhaps did not reflect what a successful season it was on the pitch, as they struggled in the latter stages of the campaign.

Unsurprisingly Luke Leahy – who won the club’s player of the season award for the second year running topped the ratings.

Killian Phillips did have an average rating higher than Leahy, but with him only joining Salop in January he did not make the number of appearances required to qualify.

We rated players in 34 games across the season, with 10 players passing our threshold of starting in more than half of those games to be rated across the season... here are the results.

Luke Leahy – 6.9

He was made skipper before the first game of the campaign at Morecambe, and he led by example all season with his feisty energetic displays in the heart of Town’s midfield.

Leahy also finished as the club’s leading goalscorer with 12. This was mainly down to reliability from the penalty spot, where he converted every single one of the eight penalties he took across all competitions.

The 30-year-old started every League One game, which is an outstanding achievement and a testament to how he looks after himself away from football.

Christian Saydee – 6.8

The striker joined from Premier League club Bournemouth on transfer deadline day back in the summer and his season in Shropshire was undoubtedly a massive success.

He scored seven goals throughout the campaign, but it was his all-round play that impressed. The youngster did have a stop-start end to the season as he battled to overcome a knee injury.

Chey Dunkley – 6.7