By Nathan Jackson
July 26 2010

Shrewsbury Town hired Graham Turner in the hopes that he can replicate the same sort of record that he had at nearby Hereford. The Shrews collapsed at the end of last season, throwing away their chance of the Playoffs, but there was the emergence of a potential start that could very well be the difference for the Shrewsbury this coming season.

Shrewsbury are one of those sides that struggle for consistency from season to season. 2004/5 saw a relegation battle, 2005/6 and 2006/7 were battles to finish in the Playoffs, 2007/8 saw a midtable end, 2008/9 saw them reach the Playoff final before last season's midtable finish.

Now, normally in these previews I would look in depth at how their previous season went, but there would be very little point in this case due to the change in management at Shrewsbury. Paul Simpson left the club last season and was replaced by Graham Turner during the summer. Turner will certainly be hoping for a better season than last year's 12^th place finish, which saw 17 wins, 12 draws and 17 defeats and a goal difference of just one.

Turner certainly appears to have his priorities right. Shrewsbury had been competing in the South West Challenge cup but pulled out today due to an injury crisis. They had reached the final after beating Havant and Waterlooville, but injuries to Matt Harrold and Ben van den Broek forced Turner to withdraw his side. Kevin McIntyre is also a doubt for their friendly over Coventry on Tuesday evening.

The new manager had been at involved at Hereford United for between 1995 and 2010 in various roles, but after leaving Hereford in the summer after feeling the club needed a new approach, he has returned to Shrewsbury, a team for whom he was player, player-manager and then just manager at between 1973 and 1983. He later went on to manager Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers and at age 62, this appointment at Shrewsbury could easily turn out to be Turner's last before retirement.

During his time at Hereford, Turner did see the club relegated in his second season due to the financial situation. He rebuilt the club and they eventually won promotion back to the Football League in 2006, gaining promotion again two seasons later and only spending around £70,000 on transfer fees during the whole time he was at Hereford. Shrewsbury will be hoping he can have the same impact the Prostar Stadium.

His first job will be to pick up the confidence following the poor end to last season. Shrewsbury had been looking at another season in the Playoffs before just three wins in their final 15 games consigned them to another year in League Two. However, there was a light amongst the dark towards the end as a young striker by the name of Tom Bradshaw emerged out of the youth team. He scored twice in a 3-0 win at Crewe, the first of which was a beauty. They kept hold of the 17 year old after some enquiries from teams higher up the Football League.

Whether Bradshaw can adequately replace Dave Hibbert is another matter though. The striker decided to take his chances at Peterborough United during the summer, joining Andreas Arestidou and Graham Coughlan through the exit door at the Prostar. They have replaced Coughlan with Ian Sharps from Rotherham, a more than adequate replacement, as well as Bristol Rovers' Mark Wright and Mat Sadler from Watford, both on loan. Dave Raven also joined Shrewsbury from Carlisle.

Matt Harrold (right) has also joined before being released by Wycombe. Harrold has never been prolific, with his 17 goals in 73 appearances for Wycombe being his career best. In 99 games for Southend and Yeovil, he scored just twelve goals and has often been compared to Drewe Broughton, someone who is unlikely to score, but could easily cause your defence a few issues. He was at trial at Orgryte in Sweden before being offered a deal by Shrewsbury.

I think Shrewsbury will be one of those sides who will be midtable this season. They've got a good enough squad to challenge for promotion but a new manager, combined with how they ended last season, could be a hurdle they can't quite get over. This is looking likely to be one of those transitional seasons that teams go through for Shrewsbury. However, if there is one team capable of coming out of midtable to potentially challenge, it's probably Shrewsbury.

Shrewsbury hope Turner can "do a Hereford"

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 26/07/2010 19:06

theimps.ka
26/07/2010 19:06

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