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A brief history of Shrewsbury Town FC
By Nathan Jackson
August 7 2008
Shrewsbury Town are a club that punched above their weight in the 1980s. They are one of the few sides in League Two who can boast winning a treble, securing the League, Shropshire Senior Cup and the Welsh club within a year. However, they've also suffered their share of suffering as well.

Shrewsbury Town formed in 1886 as a result of Castle Blues team collapsing. Castle Blues were one of the most violent teams effort to exist, but they were successful and Shrewsbury continued the success early on. They founded the Shropshire and District League in 1890/1 before being accepted into the Birmingham and District League in 1895/6. Most of the teams of those days no longer exist but there were some of the sides currently in the League, such as Crewe, Coventry and Kidderminster.

1910 saw a move to their Gay Meadow stadium, on the sight of the famous Shrewsbury Abbey and this was to be their home to the next 97 years. They transferred to the Midlands Champions League (a very strange name mid I add), winning a League and cup treble in the process, scoring 111 goals. Their full record that season was Champions of the League, winners of the Welsh Cup and winners of the Shropshire Senior Cup.

A Midland Champions win in 1949/50 gained them a promotion to the Division 3 (North) after the League expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. The Shrews won promotion again in 1958/9, staying there for 15 seasons before relegation in 1974. Over 14,000 cramped into Gay Meadow at the end of the 1978/9 season to see Shrewsbury seal the title with a win over Exeter City.

The club entered the Second Division for the first time in the club and the 80s are regarded amongst many Shrews fans as the golden era of the club. The club were the typical small club (and no offence is meant by that) punching above their weight. However, they were finally relegated in the 88/9 season and the club was relegated again in 1991/2 to the newly named Third Division, the old fourth division.

Shrewsbury lost 2-1 in their first ever Wembley appearances, a Football League Trophy Final against Rotherham, losing 2-1. At this point Shrewsbury were becoming a merge shadow of the side they were a decade previously and at the end of the 2001/2 season came a sentence that will haunt the p/a bloke forever. The Shrews needed to beat already promoted Luton to have a chance of the Playoffs, they failed to win the game and the p/a bloke said "We'll be back next season and we'll do it in 12 months time."

The 2002/3 season was reasonable well for Shrewsbury Town up until a 2-1 home win over Everton in the FA Cup. After which the club's form went to pot and the club were relegated just 12 months after the p/a bloke's claims. However, they returned immediately with a win over Aldershot in the Playoff Final.

Their first season back in the League almost resulted in them being relegated straight back again, but they gradually built themselves up and despite dominating the Playoff Final in 2006/7, they lost to Bristol Rovers. Last season started well with a 4-0 win at City but their form collapsed towards the end and they finished much lower than they really should have done.

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