League 1: Shrewsbury Town- Southend United

 

I spoke about how Shrewsbury Town had given themselves a mountain to climb this season in terms of League 1 survival, after being big sellers in the summer and following the closure of the last transfer window I wrote ..........The visitors (Town) have been big sellers in the window and lost the crown jewels in terms of four hugely promising young players in Conor Goldson ( Brighton), Josh Ginnelly (Burnley), Harry Lewis (Southampton) and Ryan Woods (Brentford), fees were undisclosed, but I know the Bees paid close to £1m and Town have banked circa £2m, but this will not be spent on new signings, but on securing the long term future of the club and players coming in will be young and pretty much bargain basement. These are big losses, Woods was their driving force in midfield and they have lost 6 of 11 starts he has missed in the last two campaigns and remember, that includes a promotion season.
 

They now sit just a point outside the drop zone and having already played a game more than the team immediately below them, they have lost a L1 high nine times already on home soil and have saved their all too rare upbeat performances for the FA Cup and are coming off a "famous" come from behind win over Championship highflyers Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, that would have been wildly celebrated and draining and this is a quick turnaround and there is every chance they will tire badly this evening.  They could go the other way and build on that win, but in the previous round they won away at Cardiff City another "name" Championship team and either side of that game, lost 7-1 away to fellow strugglers Chesterfield and 3-0 at home to another in Barnsley. They just do not have the resources to give everything against a stronger opponent and then to go again against another, just a few days later.
 

United arrive here just three points off the playoff pace and with a game in hand+ on the teams immediately above them in the table, they "spent" big in the window, adding four EPL youngsters in Sam McQueen from Southampton, Stephen Hendrie -West ham United, Jamar Loza from Norwich City and Glen Kamara of Arsenal, a couple of whom are very highly thought of. The club had a poor run around the turn of the year, but have got back on track with a  pair of cleansheets , including a fine 3-0 win over promotion rivals Coventry City, following a clear the air meeting with head coach Phil Brown, who kept his players locked in the dressing room for more than two hours after a poor performance at Swindon Town. They are a club on the up, they came on strong through the second half of last season to gain promotion and the support of the board clearly indicates that they beieve they have a chance of back to back promotions.
 

Coventry boss Tony Mowbray said after that recent loss: "We haven't got any excuses. "We were beaten by a team who were very resilient. "They dug in and didn't give us a minute on the ball.""We came here with a very experienced team. "They defended resiliently, put a lot of men behind the ball and made life difficult for us."
 

United played the last 40 minutes of that game with ten men which made it all the more impressive, they have had ten days to recover, but will be without suspended midfield "enforcer" Gary Deegan this evening and John White, Ben Coker, Anthony Wordsworth, Myles Weston and Stephen McLaughlin are all unavailable to injury, but United will stick with their 3-5-1-1 which was so effective against City , with left back/midfielder Hendrie ( see above) looking incredibly promising and a big threat going forward and not one of those listed as injured featured in that game and Brown has had a long time to work on the best replacement for Deegan. Cup fever has hit Shrewsbury and media attention is through the roof after the 5th round draw which sees Manchester United coming to Greehous Meadow and it might be very hard to get back up for a "mundane" league fixture. Away win.