Shrewsbury 1 Carlisle 0 - Report
Daniel Udoh edged Shrewsbury Town closer to League One safety, supplying the only goal in Town’s 1-0 win against Carlisle United.
Salop boss Paul Hurst had said not to expect a breeze in the park against basement boys Carlisle, and he was right with a tight contest following as Shrewsbury moved to nine points clear of the relegation zone.
Hurst named two changes to the side that lost 3-0 against Exeter City on Tuesday as Tom Flanagan replaced Jason Sraha, and Aiden O’Brien replaced the suspended Jordan Shipley.
Ten-minutes before kick-off, the match ball was delivered by a helicopter from RAF Shawbury as Town hosted its tenth Armed Forces Day and hundreds of servicemen and women at the Croud Meadow.
It was a quiet opening to the game with Carlisle’s Harrison Neal and Town’s Taylor Perry yellow carded by referee Simon Mather.
Tom Bayliss seeked to gain Shrewsbury the advantage just after the 15-minute mark rounding goalkeeper Harry Lewis before going to ground. However, referee Mather waved away penalty appeals, but did not book Bayliss for a dive.
Salop’s Perry made a menace of himself four-minutes later and latched onto sloppy defensive play from Carlisle to find himself one-on-one with Lewis, but the Cumbrians’ shot-stopper saved well.
Then out of nothing in the 40th-minute, Town top-scorer Daniel Udoh fired Shrewsbury into the lead netting his eighth League One goal of this season so far. Collecting the ball from Bayliss’ pass, the forward brilliantly maintained possession under pressure from Carlisle’s defenders and unleashed his effort which was too good for Lewis to keep out.
Carl Winchester fired narrowly wide minutes later before the home side avoided a scare on the brink of half-time. Dan Butterworth’s deflected effort fell kindly for Carlisle captain Sam Lavelle, but Marosi saved excellently to deny the defender at close-range.
Eight-minutes into the second-half, Carlisle’s Jack Diamond raced forward with purpose, but fired high and wide from goal. Shrewsbury shot-stopper Marosi was then called into action by Butterworth to deny his powerful effort after the Carlisle man danced through the Town defence.
The 24-year-old’s free-kick on the hour-mark narrowly evaded the target much to Town’s relief before Mal Benning’s determination led to Bayliss having an effort blocked.
Shrewsbury-born Jack Price then came on for his debut and the last 20-minutes after putting pen-to-paper in the week.
He helped his side see away late-pressure from Carlisle as the away side searched for a leveller in the last ten-minutes with Marosi holding Lavelle’s header. Meanwhile, Town goalscorer Daniel Udoh came close to a second goal with his long-range curling effort and substitute Tunmise Sobwale was denied well by Lewis.
Teams:
Shrewsbury Town: Marosi, Benning, Flanagan, Dunkley ©, Feeney, Winchester (Price), Bloxham (Sobwale), Perry, Bayliss, O’Brien (Bowman), Udoh (Bennett).
Subs: Burgoyne, Sraha, Price, Bennett, Sobwale, Tulloch, Bowman
Carlisle United: Lewis, Armer (Robinson), Lavelle ©, Butterworth, Ellis (Grehan), McGeouch (Maguire), Mellish, Barclay, Diamond (Gibson), Neal (McCalmont), Armstrong.
Subs: Breeze, Gibson, McCalmont, Charters, Robinson, Maguire, Grehan
Referee: Simon Mather
Attendance: 6,721
