By theimps.tk
July 28 2009

Shrewsbury Town have seen near enough all of their decent players leave the club. Grant Holt, Richard Walker, Chris Humphrey and Ben Davies were all major players in Shrewsbury's promotion push last year, but now all have left and Shrewsbury are a very different prospect. It surprised many that Shrewsbury made the Playoff Final last season, not only leaving it until the last game to secure a Playoff place, but then leaving it until the last minute of the second leg of their semi-finals to actually rescue the tie. However, they were deservedly beaten by a Gillingham side that had been above them for most of the season. Ironically it was Gillingham that were the first to get a true thumping from a Shrewsbury side who were rampant in the early parts of the season.

The first half of the season saw them win 7-0 twice, 5-0 against Dagenham, 4-0 against Macclesfield and 4-1 against Bournemouth, however, it seemed to be a 3-1 defeat at Blyth Spartans in the FA Cup that seemed to change their season. The goals quickly dried up and if it hadn't been for Grant Holt then Shrewsbury would have easily fallen too far from the Playoffs. Infact, between the defeat at Blyth Spartans on November 8^th and the draw at Port Vale on January 17^th, Holt scored seven of the eight goals that Shrewsbury scored.

Holt has now gone from New Meadow, joining Norwich City, Richard Walker's loan spell ended and Ben Davies has left for Notts County. Chris Humphrey departed for Motherwell and several others have left. So losing most of their best players is never a going to be a good way to approach the new season.

Replacements have come from various sources. Jake Robinson, a striker who was linked with the Imps during the summer and not exactly a free goalscorer, joined from Brighton, as well as two Neals, Chris and Lewis. However, the signing that impressed me the most was the signing of Craig Disley from Bristol Rovers. He almost joined City several years ago before joining Bristol Rovers and subsequently helped them beat City in the Playoffs.

Despite reaching the Playoffs last season and not having a bad general squad, I feel that they don't have enough about them to match last season's efforts, especially after losing Holt. Granted, with 11 days until the season begins this could change, but midtable is about as realistic as you're going to get.

13th : Shrewsbury recovering from exodus

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 28/07/2009 23:15

theimps.tk
28/07/2009 23:15

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I Blame Paul Mayo
29/07/2009 14:44

they have no full backs and have sold their goal scoring options, so i agree a much lower placed finish for them.

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