After a brilliant win on Tuesday where Town beat Leicester 0-1 and a nice record is that Leicester are now winless in their last five meetings with Shrewsbury, who have made it into round three for only the second time since re-entering the Football League in 2004 after Mangan's great free kick. We play Luton at home for the first time since the 08-09 season where we beat them 3-0 at home and they beat us 3-1 away. It was also the season Chester got relegated, with Chester in 23rd and Luton 24th in the league. History was made that year as Luton had been deducted 10 points for being in administration and were deducted a further 20 points for leaving administration without a CVA and were only allowed their golden share back if they agreed to the penalty. (Why don't they toughen up with more clubs?) Useless or interesting facts: As you will probably know, TV presenter Nick Owen became chairman of Luton Town after if came out of administration, he was educated at Shrewsbury School. Famous Lutonians include composer David Arnold, singer Paul Young and cricketer Monty Panesar Luton are known as the Hatters due to the hat making industry in the area. Vauxhall motors have their head offices in Luton Luton have had a fair start to the season with a win, two losses at home (one Swindon in the League Cup) and two draws. They've scored 5 goals in total with winger Luke Rooney being the top scorer with two goals. They also have Paul Benson and Luke Gutteridge as names we'll recognise. A huge squad of 30+ players means that they have a wide range of choices to play. Injury wise midfielders Jonathan Smith and Alex Lawless are still missing but left-back Scott Griffiths and midfielder Luke Gutteridge may play a part. Shrewsbury have Lawrence sitting out for his second game due to a red card, no news on Mangan as yet, Vincent is still likely to be out, MacAllister and Ellis have supposedly been doing light training with the squad, mystery man Wilding who was on the bench on Tuesday. Dom Smith was supposedly recalled from being on loan, but no mention of this. We have signed defensive midfielder Anthony Griffith to help with squad rotation and altering tactics, whether as a replacement or to bolster the squad we will find out soon. Prediction wise, it would be nice to see town get a home win and as long as we can keep their winger Rooney quiet and stop experienced striker Benson from attacking then we should be in for a good shout. Will we play a formation similar to Tuesday, it looks like we might be heading in the direction of a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 with Goldson, NKP and Grandison at the back. Let's hope we get to have a decent game and hopefully bring back some of those missing supporters. No info populated in the preview at the time of writing, but should be soon: http://www.shrewsburytown.com/fixtures-results/match-preview/index.aspx?matchid=3733781 preview updated now!
An excellent preview, Matster. I am looking forward to this one - it should be a really good test of our promotion credentials. I hope we go with the same line-up we started at Leicester (Mangan's fitness permitting) and I predict 2-0 to Town with Collins and Clark scoring. Floreat Salopia!
att 5888, town win 2-0, Morecambe lose 2-1, chelt edge town into 4th place with 90 min goal against Hartlepool. I can live with 4th in august. well done town. any one here mickeys interview at 06.45 on talk sport this morning? another big win for town today, well done.
att 5888, town win 2-0, Morecambe lose 2-1, chelt edge town into 4th place with 90 min goal against Hartlepool. I can live with 4th in august. well done town. any one here mickeys interview at 06.45 on talk sport this morning? another big win for town today, well done. excellent thread matster. if there was a betting league I would have gone 2-0!
Thoroughly professional job. 7 games, 2 formations, 4000 signings, 5 wins and no defeats. Well done to Mickey Mellon and Michael Jackson - really a tremendous feat to get the players very quickly familiar with and proficient in the tactical systems that they want to play. Even though the players aren't quite fully gelled yet - a few times players weren't quite on the same wavelengths - the results are there and we have still performed well. Special mention to Jordan Clark. While the likes of NKP and Collins were obvious, easy signings for a manager to call and for us fans to praise, Clark was a complete unknown. Most of us were impressed by him when he was on trial, but the general consensus was "looks good, but we're well stocked in midfield". Been the standout player in the side so far whether playing centrally or out wide, and easily looks good enough for L1 already. He's like Jon Taylor but with technique - I'd wager he's a better player than Taylor and 2 years younger. Give him a new contract now, he'll play at a higher level and has the attributes to go all the way.
Just like watching Brazil (1970). Better ball control by all the summer signings is the stand out feature for me.
Lenny and KDS, I am very much in agreement with you. It was a fairly comfortable victory against a disappointing Luton side who looked mid-table at best (the pre-season odds for them as champions of 4/1 look a bit silly now). Perhaps its because we seem to have so much control of games with our passing that we make the opposition look bad. I would keep Grandison in the side - he reads the game so well he is the perfect man for middle of a back three. The amazing thing is that we are fourth but I can only see the side improving as partnerships gel up front and surely as the season progresses the depth of our squad will be a big factor in our favour. The disappointment for me yesterday was the two wing-backs. If they are going to play there Micky and Cameron need to deliver better quality crosses (or at least clear the front man). Their service to Collins and Vernon was poor yesterday. Clark is surely the man of the season so far - I like him more in the middle as he is in the game more - he has real skill and pace and can only improve.
Probably deservedly for both of them! The scooping save their keeper made was very lucky/skillful! Saying that from where we sat we're sure their keeper dropped back beyond his goalline holding onto the ball, a few fans noticed it but the lino didn't react.
