Matt Taylor sets out Shrewsbury 2024 vision

Salop’s season reached the halfway stage on Saturday, as their final game before Christmas ended in a 2-1 defeat against the division’s highest scorers Peterborough United.

It meant Town have managed to get 27 points having now played everyone once in League One – they have also made the third round of the FA Cup. And when asked what areas of the pitch he feels his side can do better in 2024, Taylor said he is hoping they can get on the scoresheet more often.

Doggedness

He said: “We need to score more goals. We need to be better at that real doggedness to keep clean sheets.

“If we had done that on Saturday, we would have won a game of football – fact.

“The belief is there, it is just there are a few knocks along the road that I don’t want to derail us.

“It can happen when you are a player, having been through it myself, that when results do not go your way belief wanes.

“They are a good group, that are committed to everything that we are asking them as a group of staff.

“We need to pick up as many points as we can as quickly as we can. When you really drill down and look at the problems we have had this season I would still stand here and argue that we should have six or seven more.

“But we have not, am I happy? Not really, no. But that is just me as a competitor and a person knowing the players that we have got.”

Aaron Pierre was the latest Shrewsbury player to go off on Saturday – with what looked like a hamstring issue. And the boss has said having the injuries problems he and his staff have had to deal with has been really challenging.

“It is not an excuse, it is a fact,” Taylor added. “There are so many players that I cannot pick at the moment, and unfortunately it will not catch up with you but it will make things really difficult.

“With the group we have available at the moment I cannot fault them to a man they have given everything they possibly can.”

The boss confirmed Shrews will not see their injured players, not including Pierre, again in 2023.

He added that mid to late January is a more realistic time to expect them to come back into the team.

Town head to Cheltenham this afternoon, the side they began the League One campaign against getting a 1-0 win at Meadow back in August.

But they have turned a corner since then with Darrell Clarke coming in as boss.

Shrews then head to Burton Albion in the game between Christmas and New Year before concluding the festive period back in Shropshire as Fleetwood visit the Meadow.