Analysis: Improving Shrewsbury can take heart despite Dons defeat

But, despite this, Steve Cotterill and his team can take crumbs to comfort from Stadium MK, where no club in the top four divisions has better form than the Dons.

On paper and at first glance, Saturday’s 2-0 home win looks like a routine success for high-flying Milton Keynes.

It was a deserved win. Liam Manning’s impressive hosts were the better side. But, delve a touch deeper and Town’s seven shots to MK’s 10 and Shrewsbury’s superior expected goals (xG) – 1.21 to 0.92 in their favour mostly thanks to substitute Saikou Janneh gilt-edged late chance – shows a match that, maybe, could have gone another way on another day.

Salop’s backbone this season, and certainly of late, has been a defensive resilience that has, at times, been inpenetrable.

Town needed to be at their best to keep a rampant and stylish MK Dons at bay on Saturday and they could not produce the football at either end of the pitch that has got them positive results of late.

Dons boast an attacking line-up capable of inflicting damage on any team in the division at any time but, by the same token, Town’s defence has shown time and time again it can stand up to any force in League One.

Cotterill, then, will be frustrated and disappointed by the manner of MK’s goals on Saturday.

The first, the game’s important opener, in particular will surely have grated on the boss.

If for no other reason, than because barely 30 seconds earlier, with some confidence and conviction, it could and should have been Shrewsbury in the lead.

Ryan Bowman flew on to a loose ball and decided to ignore partner Daniel Udoh’s run. He cut inside and sent a tame effort well wide across goal.

A split second later and Scott Twine’s pass through to play Mo Eisa on goal was perfect. Eisa’s clinical low finish across Marko Marosi and into the bottom corner was perfect.

No doubt Town could have defended the goal better, by closing space and time for Twine in the middle and by matching and defending Eisa’s run better, but the way Dons created and converted the chance encapsulated a talented side at the peak of their powers.

Games have sliding doors moments and while the opening goal didn’t decide this contest, it went a long way towards mapping out its direction.

The final 10 to 12 minutes of the first half were Town’s best spell. Luke Leahy should have scored but was surprisingly erratic, Bowman mistimed a header and Udoh was denied by a fine Jamie Cumming save as Salop banged at the door.

Cotterill opted to withdraw injured skipper Ethan Ebanks-Landell from defence and introduce Bristol City loan speedster Janneh in a switch from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3 at the break. Town must wait to discover the extent of the captain’s knee problem.

The manager admitted he was going to change system anyway, but the switch to 4-3-3 did not have the immediate desired effect, as the hosts doubled their lead.

MK’s second, through the hugely talented Twine, was laced with controversy, however.

Midfielder Tyrese Fornah spent the best part of 15 or 20 seconds down injured just outside Town’s penalty box prior to Twine hammering in for 2-0.

His absence in the goal was telling, as Fornah’s position would have been to make a block in the box.

Technically, per the rules, there was nothing wrong with what either referee Martin Coy or Milton Keynes did. It was not a head injury, they did not need to put the ball out. Then comes a question of morality, but MK were on the attack – an attack initially started when Leahy lost possession – it is easy to see why they didn’t put the ball out.

Cotterill and his players’ gripe was that the officials were keen to stop play regularly on the day – for softer incidents than this. Five yellow cards for Town players does not typify the type of match.

The contests against MK Dons and Ipswich were billed last week – at the time against the two form sides in the country although the Tractor Boys surprisingly lost against Cambridge on Saturday – as a real acid test for improving Town.

A deserved defeat in the first of those does not undo everything they have got right of late, but is a disappointing hitch just as the prospect of climbing a number of places and pushing for 12th was on the horizon.

The chance for a landmark finish of between 12th-14th is still there, within touching distance of three points, and that should be more than enough to keep the season alive for Shrewsbury.