Shrewsbury Town analysis: A missed chance for precious points and one over on their old boss for Salop

Football fans have long and often unforgiving memories. You might well have only just made your return to the touch-line from heart surgery - it truly had to be this fixture in which Ainsworth marked his return after a two-month long absence while recuperating - but you can expect, in-keeping with the season, an especially frosty reception. There is a bigger picture here, though, for Town in their quest to secure their League Two status and some strong recent home form to uphold.

The narrative which ran in parallel to this game had to be parked as 3pm arrived and, although there were a few digs from a vociferous home end aimed at the visiting manager - often citing his taste in music and his playing style - the focus very much remained on backing those in blue and amber.

That support was rewarded. Shrewsbury were unapologetically route one in getting the ball into the area and causing havoc via a Tom Anderson flick-on. The finish, awarded to George Lloyd after Anthony Scully struck for goal, wasn't particularly attractive, not that it mattered. Michael Appleton allowed himself a quiet fist pump as Ainsworth turned away. Plenty of time to go.

If there was an element of fortune in the manner of the opening goal, the second was an individual thing of beauty. Luca Hoole won his header, from which the ball sat nicely for the right wing-back himself to advance. Lloyd made a very smart run off of Robbie McKenzie to cause uncertainty on the Gillingham left, and Hoole took the opportunity to burst into the box and finish as calm as you'd like. Salop had breathing space.

That giddy relief teams must enjoy when they have said breathing space was punctured, though, before half time; Garath McCleary curled a cross onto the penalty spot and the unfortunate Sam Stubbs, in his attempts to beat Josh Andrews to the aerial ball, crashed a header off the bar and into his own net.

Salop might've welcomed half-time, delayed by five minutes of stoppage time, but they instead used that wisely and still managed to venture down the tunnel at the break two goals ahead. Scully and Lloyd combined again, this time far more intentionally and skilfully, when the former burgled Jonny Williams of the ball and fed the latter, who finished terrifically from an ever narrowing angle.

The second half, even in the early stages, painted a bleak picture by way of the conditions; the rain came with the darkness, the temperature dropped and Town's players - including 17-year-old Isaac England in the middle of the pitch - had to stand up as Gillingham, who had rather little to lose at this stage, came on increasingly strong.

For the most part, the back three of Stubbs, Anderson and Will Boyle stepped up to the task as the Gills went direct and tested the back-line's aerial capabilities, but when the former was adjudged to have wrestled Josh Andrews to the ground at a corner - something which appeared rather soft in real time - Gillingham were granted a foothold.

Appleton reacted in the second half with changes, contested by some quarters of the fanbase; Scully and Ismeal Kabia, who had impressed for the best part of an hour with energy, pace, a terrier-like approach and touches of quality, were withdrawn and replaced by attackers John Marquis and Chuks Aneke, but the alterations did little to control the waves of attacks from the visitors who, by this stage, had the bit between their teeth in hunting an equaliser.

It came, gut-wrenchingly, in the final five minutes, just as you'd begun to believe that Salop had seen off the worst of what Gillingham had to offer. Another aerial ball was flung into the area and this one, for once, wasn't dealt with as substitute Elliott Nevitt converted beyond Will Brook. Ainsworth and his posse in the visiting dug-out leapt up in unison.

On an afternoon where those sides around Town had presented them with an opportunity to make in-roads as far as the League Two table goes, coupled with the two-goal lead passed up, this will go down as a chance missed - yet still ten points from a possible 12 in the last four matches on home soil point to form to cling onto a build on. As for getting one over on Ainsworth, there'll be other days.