Shrewsbury v Crewe Alex

[JJ1532]

Hmm, so where do we go from Saturday's game then? The manager I sense is caught between a rock and a hard place. You can tell he wants to get extra defenders and defensive minded players in the team, such is his nature. But if he wanted to switch to a 3-5-2, that would mean dropping Colclough or Inman and would mean less game time for Wilson, Cooper and Haber. Could go 3-4-3 I suppose, but that would mean dropping a midfielder. Or we could keep it the same and hope for the best. What does he do?

As for Shrewsbury, they haven't picked up a point in their 3 league home games so far, but like Millwall and a few other sides, look strong on the road. 2 wins at Barnsley and Southend will have given them a real shot of confidence to get over the loss of Woods, Goldson and now Wesolowski. Interesting that they named only 1 striker in their team for their last 2 games. Do they switch and put 2 in for a home game they will feel they have a great chance of winning? We will also be facing Mark Ellis and Matt Tootle, who I hope will get a decent reception after they served us well, especially Tootle.

It's 3/3 home losses v 3/3 away losses in this game. So someone's record is about to change here. Most likely Shrewsbury's. 3-1 Shrewsbury, first chants of "Davis out" from the away end. Roll on Saturday.

 

[TimeyWimey]

I don't mind hoping we'll lose, knowing full well we haven't a hope in hell of winning.

I hope Toots scores. I really liked him.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Don't know if I'm going but any lifeless performance and I hope the whole stand of 400 or so loyal fools (we won't take what we usually take) demand his sacking.

But watch us win 1-0 with a Tootle own goal now and he gets till the end of the season.

 

[Matt_]

Interesting that they named only 1 striker in their team for their last 2 games. Do they switch and put 2 in for a home game they will feel they have a great chance of winning? We will also be facing Mark Ellis and Matt Tootle, who I hope will get a decent reception after they served us well, especially Tootle.

Fulham loanee Larnell Cole has played just off Tyrone Barnett for the last two games, but Mellon is sure to consider playing two strikers for this game.

Goal scoring, and creating enough chances, continues to be a major issue for Town, but the return of the successful 3-5-2 formation from last season now including Knight-Percival has seen a return of something close to the defensive meanness shown last season.

New signing Ian Black gives our very depleted centre midfield a much needed additional option. Ellis and Tootle will start barring any injuries.

If Town are to do anything in League 1 this season this game, plus the home game against Blackpool the following Saturday, are the type of home games we need to be winning.

 

[sam_arvey]

Fully expect 3 points from this one. Crewe, as predicted, have had an awful start. We've started to get some results together since the start of the month, and confident we'll continue to do so.
COYB!

 

[vanner]

The first game I'll miss this season. Looking at the next 2, 4 points would be brilliant and would place us about 12th which would be a great comeback after a difficult start and the loss of 3 first choice players from the promotion team. Focusing on this game to begin with, Tootle and Ellis will both want to impress and our defence has looked more like the 'best defence in England' once again. Hopefully we can start putting the ball back into the net a little more, although saying that Barnett and Collins both have 3 whilst Clarke has 2 so we've got goalscorers about.

I imagine we'll put out the same starting 11, with Black on the bench in the place of McKnight.

 

[SRNP]

meh. Shrewsbury 3 - 0 Crewe

 

[ArmchairDiehard]

Shrewsbury 2-0 Crewe

 

[Wootball]

I'll be there, obviously - but not expecting anything other than a defeat.

 

[3Loggerheads]

Obviously hoping for a Salop win but the fact Crewe go into their 8th game looking for a win and Shrewsbury's 3 League home games so far ending in defeat worries me a little!

So based on the above...Draw

 

[TimeyWimey]

A draw would possibly be the most irritating result. Gives Davis and the Crewe media a chance to start telling us how "he's turning it round" based on another shit result.

 

[The Alex]

A flukey win has just bought our useless manager even more time.

 

[Matt_]

Town's lack of ability and quality at the business end of the pitch again horribly exposed. It's one thing being solid and organised on the road and sneaking results that way but when we have to make the running and open teams up at home we're found horribly wanting. Which is why, until that is addressed, we'll continue to struggle to make any real impression in this division.

Not impressed by Mellon's decision to only start this game with one striker either. Collins is the only striker we have with a track record in this division and he is sat on the bench.

I need to check the record books but I'd hazard a guess this is Town's worst start to a season at home for many a long year.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

I did say Shrewsbury would be our first win of the season about a month ago

Nice to see Tootle looks his same questionable self and not the Paolo Maldini like fullback a certain section of our fans seem to think he was, we were awful today after the goal and I genuinely don't know how Shrewsbury couldn't score past our defence. Ah well, looking forward to five at the back for the rest of the season, another long winless run and that pathetic idiot to still remain in charge based on this fortunate win.

Can't ever recall a side being as bad in front of goal as Shrewsbury were today, I have a feeling this will be a League Two fixture next season if they don't find their shooting boots soon!

 

[JJ1532]

First win of the season and I'm not as happy as I should be. Pleased for the players and the fans obviously, but Davis will feel like a genius tonight and has probably bought himself till the end of the season.

First half, we were a shambles, no other way of describing it. Peter Morse reckoned Shrewsbury shaded it, I think he had red blinkers on. Shrewsbury could have scored about 5 had they packed their shooting boots. Clark and Cole both missed great chances, few other half chances they wasted as well. Got the earliest goal I can remember us scoring in years, 65 seconds in. King robs their defender, runs at their defence and just hits it into the corner. Football is so simple at times. Keeper should have done better, but I won't complain. had a few other half chances, but generally we didn't look like getting a 2nd. Shrewsbury played some good football in the 1st half and carved us open at will, we couldn't live with the 3-5-2 they played. Not surprising given our narrow system and the fact they use their system properly. Very fortunate to get to HT at 1-0.

2nd half, we matched them up 3-5-2 and it was a much more even contest. We did what we needed to do to grind out the result. Wasted time, committed niggly fouls, slowed the play down. Also restricted them to 1-2 decent openings, one of which Garratt made a super save from. But in the 2nd half, we did enough to deserve the win. Haber should have made it a comfy last 10 when he put a free header from 6 yards over. God he's fucking usless. I can take him being a very limited player and not being able to play the targetman role, but when he gets sitters like that one, he has to score. If he doesn't, then I don't know what he brings. We do need another striker though, preferably a tallish player with a bit of physical presence. On the whole, we were very lucky to be ahead in the 1st half, but on the whole, we reduced Shrewsbury to our level in the 2nd half and got the job done.

As for Davis, I can't even praise him for switching to the 3-5-2, because it was what we should have looked to use way earlier in the season. It has to be what we use going forward, has to be. Shrewsbury today(and numerous other teams over the last 18 months) have proved that you can still play good football with this system, you don't need 4-3-3 to play football. But what they did do well was mix up their style. Short passing and moving football one minute, long balls into Barnett the next, getting it forward at varying degrees of quickness. Very impressed by their general play, just couldn't score. Had they managed just 1 in the first half, I think they'd have walked away with it.

Oh and whilst I can understand the angry comments towards Tootle, I thought the fans treatment of him today was a disgrace. The lad was one of the few players over the last 5 years that genuinely cared about the club. Never let us down when it truly mattered, was a big part in our promotion and JPT runs, was the key player in our survival 2 seasons ago. Yeah, things went a little sour last season, but he still deserved better than the abuse he got today. I mean, Tootle serves us really well for 200 games and gets booed. Ellis gives us 2 years of average performances for this level and he gets applause. Go figure. As for the incident at the end, why did Davis even bother having a word? Tootle was a bad tempered player when we lost at the best of times, so Davis trying to be all sympathetic towards him was only going to wind him up. Yeah, Tootle needs to learn to control himself better, but Davis also should have known better. Leave him to sulk Steve!

On the whole, I don't think Shrewsbury should be too worried. Ok, 4 home league losses in 4 is pretty poor, but if their away form holds up and they can pick up a few points at home(which they will), I don't think they need to be worried about relegation. Especially when you consider the upheaval their squad has undergone in the summer, losing Goldson, Woods, Ginnelly, Lewis etc.

As for us, still feels like we're delaying the inevitable. But, hopefully we can build on that result next week. Walsall are doing really well, but no matter how well they do, I'll never fear playing them, nor think a result at the Bescot is beyond us. Probably be made to eat those words this time next week. Still, good win to get off the mark. Go with 3-5-2(Garratt, Turton, Ray, Davis, Guthrie, Kingsley, Atkinson, Fox, King, Dalla Valle/Haber, Colclough) from now on and see what happens.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

The Tootle incident was harmless banter, some people aren't happy with how he could possibly sit out nearly all of last season and all of a sudden become a starter as soon as he moved to Shrewsbury. Society has gone soft as shit these days, no one's threatening him or anything, just giving him a bit of harmless stick for leaving. I think everyone appreciates his service to the club but it's just pantomime stuff to get under an ex-player's skin. Ellis never had the same connection with the fans so he wouldn't get any stick and a lot of people are more sympathetic towards Ellis anyway given Davis elected to harshly give him the boot. I did find Davis' word to Tootle at the end funny though, possibly the best thing Steve has done in years. Had me in stitches!

I do think Shrewsbury knocked the ball about well but we gave them an abundance of space to do so, most teams would have closed them down but we somehow managed to stand off them so much we gave Mark Ellis the freedom of the Meadow at times. I think Harry, Garratt and Colclough were our best performers today. LDV and Turton were woeful, especially the latter. A team of 11 Ollie Turton's what Steve Davis wants would see us win the Fair Play Award and go down with a record low points total. Midfield were non-existent too but King has a habit of playing like shite but scoring important goals, so I feel very indifferent towards him. I'd go with an attacking 3-5-2 next week even if I'm not a fan of it because Davis doesn't know how to use it correctly and I reckon playing Haber over Inman with Coco playing behind LDV and Haber and Ray or Guthrie in for Atkinson/Fox could do us the world of good if we switched that way. But it's wishful thinking, in hindsight, unless we go on a rampant run of form now this is a bad day for the club, a fortunate win and already certain people getting carried away with winning on social media will only keep the root cause of our fundamental long-term problem in charge for the foreseeable future.

DAVIS OUT!

 

[TimeyWimey]

Load of shite.

 

[Crewealexfan123]

I'm sorry, the Tootle reception may have been slightly unjustified but yesterday he proved what a mardarse the bloke really is. Imagine being a professional footballer and not expecting any kind of banter/stick from an ex clubs fans, would love to know what was said at the end but there's no way our Davis loving media would claim it was bad even if it was.

Yesterday was the worst game I've watched all season but yet the most rewarding, it's a good job for Davis' sake that the 3-5-2 worked to our advantage because otherwise he would have been crucified in the away end. Took a massive gamble and I for one was expecting the inevitable Crewe collapse.

On another note- are Shrewsbury the only club in the football league to employ bouncers rather than genuine stewards?

 

[Wootball]

Turton woeful? He was poor first half but the system in the second half suited him and I thought he had a great 2nd. And it's not LDV's fault that playing as a lone striker renders him completely ineffective. He ran his arse off.

Garratt had one real save to make yesterday. Yes they had a lot of the ball but to call it flukey does a massive disservice to the players - defense is just as important as attack. We've dominated games and lost (Swindon) and so to come away with a defensive 1-0 win is something we haven't been able to do for a long time. I still want Davis gone but the players deserve some credit for yesterday.

And Tootle was a twat all day yesterday. Mouthing off to some fans during the warmup, regularly mouthing off at Harry Davis, giving the fans shit at the end. He got booed because he was acting like a prick yesterday just as much as because he left. I didn't boo him pre game, but after his antics during and after the match I gave a rousing rendition telling to to fuck off.

 

[TimeyWimey]

It's come to being expected to be pleased with hanging on for dear life against a Shrewsbury side who were the most ineffective side (aside from ourselves) I've seen for a couple of years. It's absolute bollocks and it's depressing me that it has given Davis an undeserved lifeline. We now get four weeks of "needing to improve" before Blackpool out-shit us.

 

[3Loggerheads]

Town's lack of ability and quality at the business end of the pitch again horribly exposed. It's one thing being solid and organised on the road and sneaking results that way but when we have to make the running and open teams up at home we're found horribly wanting. Which is why, until that is addressed, we'll continue to struggle to make any real impression in this division.

Not impressed by Mellon's decision to only start this game with one striker either. Collins is the only striker we have with a track record in this division and he is sat on the bench.

I need to check the record books but I'd hazard a guess this is Town's worst start to a season at home for many a long year.

Bang on Matt,
Matt it is Towns worst start at home in our League history by far as we have got a win or draw in the third home game. I have not looked at our non league days stats pre 1950

 

[Matt_]

Thanks, I suspected as much.

According to the Shropshire Star we're now one short of equalling our worst ever sequence of home defeats too.

"Shrewsbury – the best home side in the country last season – have now lost five straight league games in front of their own fans going back to May, one off the club record from January 2014."

Meanwhile, Crewe fans may be interested to read Tootle's reaction to the Crewe fans who gave him some stick on Saturday.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/sport...15/09/21/towns-matt-tootle-mystified-by-boos/

 

[The Alex]

He's such a massive baby

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Thanks, I suspected as much.

Meanwhile, Crewe fans may be interested to read Tootle's reaction to the Crewe fans who gave him some stick on Saturday.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/sport...15/09/21/towns-matt-tootle-mystified-by-boos/

I think he has a huge self-importance complex personally. He's hardly one of our all-time legend players that he seems to think he is and he left the club in bad taste by saying it was an easy decision to leave us and that, if you believe rumours, a lot of players weren't happy with him last season.

Lost some respect for this mardarse. But let's face it, a lot of our fans inflated his ability anyway, just because he cared doesn't mean he was Crewe's answer to Paolo Maldini!