FL2: Shrewsbury v Torquay Utd 2nd October 2010

I think we needed a performance more than the result and last week's matches may well indeed turn out to be the nadir / turning point.

Just a quick update whilst I wait for my nando's to arrive.

Overall disappointed with the result but really really pleased with the performance. Quite possibly the best of the season so far, although I didn't see the Stevenage game.

What a difference 4 days makes. You couldn't have asked for more from the players, they were outstanding. I am so pleased for them and Paul buckle. 

We dominated the 2nd half even more than the first. If Carlisle's curling shot had curled a bit more and crept in rather than hitting the post and if robertsons run and shot had gone in then I  have no doubt we would have gone onto to get a fully deserved 3 points.

I would have taken 1-1 before the game, but now I believe we fully deserved a win. 

Midfield was awesome today, o'kane came of age with a dominant performance. Manse was simply outstanding, Stevens & zebroski had the beating of their men whenever they wanted, wroe also had a better game, not withstanding his shocking penalty miss. We literally played them off the park, they really couldn't cope with us going forward & offered very little in attack themselves. I would be interested to see if the stats back up our dominance of the game. A performance that shoves it right up the doubters a*.

It's difficult to find anything wrong at

Will write more later, possibly between main & pudding

Three games without a win now ~ "Sort it out Turner" and cue gates of barely two thousand.

Oh no I forgot, this isn't Torquay it's Shrewsbury isn't it and the attendance today was 6,000 (only 250 of them away fans) from a population (70,000) roughly half of Torbay's.

Makes you realise why WE struggle and THEY don't.

Now don't tell me that with Shrewsbury's unemployment level twice as high as Torbay's that's nothing short of a disgraceful illustration of the apathy rife down in th Bay and the totally different civic pride in a small county town in farming country which is hardly "footballing hotbed" land is it?

Like us ( and before us) Shrews dropped out of the Football League, but today commanded three times the miserable gate we attracted on Tuesday night.

Don't read that as an attack on the "Kind & Gentle Folk" of Utopia Dave, just try and justify that truly awful FACT in a way that exonerates Torbay from being described as the "Apathy Capital of the Footballing World".

Interesting post about Shrews crowd and their population. Sounded like a good peformance from the commentary. Sounds like we played well and dominated. However when you dominate games like this you have to win surely.
Thats two games that we have had praise from opposition managers and one point to show for it!
Three points out of eighteen is hardly the way back to the top of the league though.

Just got back so just a couple more things to add to my previous post. Didn’t have a pudding in Nando’s

First of all what a nice place Shrewsbury is. We were very impressed with the town and the theatre on the water front/river just shows what a town can do with the right resources and the right vision from those in charge.

The ground was also impressive the best I have been to in the lower leagues and I for one would love to have a ground like that for us and the pitch was perfect, ideal for a team wanting to play decent football.

We appeared to start 4-5-1, rather than 4-4-1-1 which I thought we might with O’Kane starting, however I might be wrong and it might have been that O’Kane played in the hole behind Benyon.

Ellis returned to the heart of defence and Wroe to the centre of Midfield, also regaining the captaincy.

We started off brightly and our intentions were clear from the outset that we would take the game to them, then out of nothing a terrible mistake from Ellis gifted them a goal that Bevan could do nothing about. It also had a detrimental effect on Ellis for the rest of the game.So from a defence that went nearly 1100 minutes without conceding a goal, we then gift 2 opening goals in 3 games to put us on the back foot. Initially i was worried that the goal might have taken the stuffing out of us and given the impetus to Shrewsbury, however not only did we not panic or fold tamely, but we took the game to them.

We really did play some nice football throughout the game, outplaying Shrewsbury for long periods and how we didn’t go in half time at least 2 goals ahead was beyond me. Mansell, O’kane twice and Zebs all had good shots either saved or narrowly missed.

The two penalties were absolutely nailed on penalties.

The first saw Benyon touch the ball past the keeper only for the keeper to needlessly bring him down. Wroe seemed really confident, he grabbed the ball and had it on the spot before the referee had finished booking the keeper. The keeper went to his right but Wroe blasted the penalty high and wide to the left, a dreadful penalty. I don’t mind a penalty being saved, but to miss the target is a cardinal sin.

The second saw a great move involving Robertson.O’Kane and Zebroski. Zebroski then crossed it over and Robertson, I think?, was tripped as he was moving away from the goal. Initially the referee didn’t give it, however the linesman very quickly had the flag across his chest so the ref then gave it, much to the disbelief of the home fans, though they couldn’t have any complaints about either.

Wroe made no effort to get the ball, but Benyon and Robertson (who would have thought it) both went to get it, had a quick chat and Benyon took the responsibility. Great penalty by Benyon, the keeper guessed right, to his right, but it was so well taken that he barely managed to get a finger to it as it was struck perfectly just inside the post down low. Why doesn’t he take all the penalties?? I hope that Wroe is now rested as penalty taker for a while, let Benyon take them.

Fully deserved to go in at least level at half time.

Second half was much the same, we really dominated them and I never felt that they would score so for me it was just a matter of when, not if, we would score the winner. Sadly that didn’t come but it wasn’t for the lack of trying.

O’Kane had another chance, Carlisle struck a post and Robertson who, in the best move of the match, struck a 25 yarder that the keeper had to turn around the post for a corner.

The players were outstanding;

Bevan; Got a rapturous round of applause when his name was called out when the teams were announced. Didn’t really have much to do, but as usual did what he had to do very well, commanded the box and made a good save in the second half down low to his right.

Nicholson; Solid in defence, got forward quite a bit and linked up well with stevens on several occasions. Danny was having such a good game that they double marked him giving Nicholson acres of space down the left.

Branston; Another very solid dominant game, won everything in the air as they did pump a few long hopeful balls up front. Tore into Ellis after his mistake for their goal.

Ellis; Won his first challenge and you think its so glad to have him back, they he makes a howler of a mistake which gifts them a goal. Branston, then Robertson have a go at him. He tries to apologise,to Branston then Mansell?? Then Buckle, Then anyone who was looking at him, no one very interested. I felt sorry for him and it had a detrimental effect on him as for the rest of the game it was like he was in a bit of a trance. Missed a couple of tackles and got caught out of position a few times, but the guy has been out for a few games so hopefully he learns from this puts it behind him and comes back next week stronger than ever. I’d like to have seen Wroe, in his capacity as captain, go over and do the arm around the shoulder touch to get him to put it out of his mind.

Robertson; Very good game not only in defence but attack as well, judged on this performance the right back spot is his for keeps. He was involved in the move for the second penalty and in the second half went on a fantastic run which involved exchanging passes with Stevens before unleashing a screamer from 25 yards that the keeper did well to save.

Stevens; Outstanding. One of his going days when he beats people at will, defends when he needs to and look unplayable. Strong contender for MoM.

Zebroski; Ditto Stevens.

Mansell; Awesome display, he ran the midfield, aggressive in the tackle, ran his heart out, had a few shots on goal, won the ball, gave it to O’Kane, job down. He was my MoM.

O’Kane; Awesome, best game I have seen from him. This time it was the genius without keep losing the ball. Worked well with Mansell, made some great passes and got some great defending challenges in. Covered a lot of ground. He really is the diamond in the rough, once polished he will become a valuable asset.

Wroe; Had a decent game, not spectacular but steady, looked up for it more than he has done recently so you could argue that the ‘rest’ has done him good. Only downer was the awful awful penalty.

Benyon; Strangely subdued. You could argue that he only did 2 things all afternoon, win a penalty then score one, but you can’t argue with that. Not his usual chasing down, but there was the usual not strong enough in the challenge, poor first touch. That said very savvy to win the penalty and a superbly struck penalty for the equaliser so I can’t be to hard on him. No surprise when he was subbed for Carlisle allowing Zebs to go up front.

Carlisle; Not on for long but got stuck in when he did and a superb run and curling left foot shot from the edge of the box that had the keeper to beat but it rattled back off the post.

To sum up, a fantastic performance from us, individually and as a team. If we play like this I’d fancy our chances against anyone in this league and would expect for us to remain in at least a playoff position. We really did put last weeks performance behind us.

A few more things to add whilst I remember them.

It was quite obvious that passing, passing and more passing had been drilled into them all week.

Not only did we keep possession well but also used the ball effectively going forward. Sometimes teams keep possession but have no penetration, Stevenage games in the conference spring to mind, but we pressed them and were unlucky not to have scored a few more.
It started from the back and if it didn’t work down one flank it would go back, across to the other flank and try that side, if not then back again. This effectively opened Shrewsbury up as they were chasing shadows a lot of the time.

Also if your 2 wide men are having good games then they opposition tend to double mark, which happened several times yesterday, which allows the two full backs to push on and overlap. They both did that yesterday and a special mention must go to both of them for that because of the vast amount of ground they covered. Add to the fact that Nicholson takes corners from both sides and most throw ins, it shows how much of a shift he put in.

I thought the referee and his assistants had a very good game and between them they got all of the big decisions correct. The home crowd were as impressed with their performances, as you would expect, they didn’t feel that the penalties should have been given and they were not happy with a few of the other decisions, also we did have the rub of the green a couple of times. Its been a while since I have heard our fans chant “the referee’s quite good”.

Substitutions and tactics; Paul Buckle got them absolutely spot on. Whether the formation was 4-4-1-1 or 4-5-1,it didn’t matter we controlled the midfield. That battle was won very early which they allowed us to be more creative. Zebs & Danny started so brightly that they were more worried about containing them than attacking themselves.

The substitutions were spot on. As I said in my previous post Benyon wasn’t particularly effective, obviously not withstanding being brought down for one penalty and scoring another (if that makes sense??), and in the second half when it looked like Shrewsbury might get back into the game, he was replaced by Carlisle and Zebs went up front. This kept the momentum with us and I don’t think Shrewsbury expected another tricky winger to enter the fray and then pop up with a sublime shot that was unlucky to not find the back of the net.

Then in the dying minutes he replaced Danny, Zebs appeared to drop back to the flank and Macklin went up front. Initially you ask your self why, but then Macklin is as quick as anyone at the club, maybe even the league. So he was able to chase down their defenders very very quickly, put pressure on them and force them to lump it forward, straight down Branstons throat. Whether the Macklin up front was intentional, I don’t know, but it worked for those last 5 minutes or so.

The more I reflect on Yesterdays game the more impressed I am and the more confident I am about us getting back to winning ways. If we can play like that consistently then I promise you we will be a force to deal with this season. So its renewed confidence for me and I’m looking forward to Crewe next week. If Crewe are happy to play an open and expansive game, based on yesterdays result, then in this form I would take us to get 3 points up there.

A really nice match report there. Sounds like I decided to miss out on a good match and an excellent performance from us. Fiscal prudence got the better of me and I stayed local. I ended up watching Wealdstone V Lowestoft Town. Lowestoft are a team on the move. I overheard a bloke at the match saying that they are paying their players or 500 quid a week! Ex Gulls loanee Matthew Halliday now plays for them as do a number of ex Norwich City players including a very impressive right back called Andrew Cave-Brown who was released by Leyton Orient in the summer. No wonder we can't get players down here if non league clubs are paying those sort of wages especially if they stay local and find a full time job.

Last year's games against Crewe proved to be excellent games, both 1-1 draws I think, but it marked the start of Guy Branston in the heart of our defence and the start of Elliot Benyon's 2nd half of the season effort which ended up being both huge factors keeping us up.