Post by skally on Oct 17, 2006 11:56:52 GMT
Good evening all and welcome to Gay Meadow for this league two clash.
As is traditional at this time in early October, the international fixtures have disrupted this weeks league games and we find ourselves here at the Meadow a day earlier than we had anticipated. I personally am glad that we are playing the match tonight as it provides a chance for me to indulge in complete relaxation on my day off tomorrow! A long lie in followed by a couple of hours surfing the net and then the England match on TV sounds pretty good to me.
Whilst we are on the subject of the national team I feel I must express with regret that ever since the World Cup I have struggle to care too much about England matches. It pains me to say this as I am normally as patriotic as they come and really look forward to these games. Now I tend to see them as an annoying interruption to the Premiership calendar. I will certainly watch and probably enjoy Saturday’s game against Macedonia but if I’m honest I would rather watch Match of the Day Premiership footy in the evening. Let’s hope my love for England returns when I’ve finally got over the heartache of World Cup 2006!
Today’s opponents Macclesfield Town are a club who have had an unimaginably bad start to the season. To go twelve matches without a victory in this league is pretty much unheard of. It’s never nice to see a club going through such an appalling run of form, I hope that after this evenings game they can turn the corner and start putting some points on the board.
It’s amazing just how often a club sacks their manager and then manages to win their next match, we saw this recently when Leeds terminated the contract of Kevin Blackwell and then beat high flying Birmingham City 3-2 the following Saturday. I wouldn’t mind betting that Norwich City get the 3 points when the travel to QPR next week now that Nigel Worthington has departed. I can only hope that this trend is not the case for this evenings match as Brian Horton was given his marching orders by the Macclesfield board last week. The Silkmen are bound to be fired up to impress tonight under the leadership of Ian Brightwell.
The fickle nature of football never ceases to amaze me. It was only a couple of years ago during Jimmy Quinn’s brief spell as our manager in the football league that Brian Horton was being spoken of by many as the best manager in League Two. As our fans began to get on Quinn’s back as we struggled to find form, many used Horton as an example as the kind of manager we should be looking for to guide us forward. Macclesfield were of course a play-off chasing side at the time and now just two years on, the Silkmen are rooted to the bottom of the football league and Brian Horton is left without a job and with a severely damaged reputation. My full respect and admiration goes out to all football managers!
As if our opponents needed any more incentive for tonight’s game there is of course the added spice of the returning Jamie Tolley with the Macclesfield squad. Jamie will be keen to show the Shrewsbury fans just what they are missing if he takes part in the match. I don’t think that any complacency will rear its ugly head in the Shrewsbury Town dressing room but our failure to perform against sides at the bottom of the table proved to be our downfall last season and has been a bit of a worry in my mind in the run up to this match. It will be a blow to be without Derek Asamoah for tonight’s game but I still feel that we have more than enough quality to win the game comfortably.
It is a pleasure these days to be able to write and say in all seriousness that a 1-1 draw away from home is disappointing. Last week’s visit to Rochdale was the third game in a row that we had drawn but really should have won due to our superior attacking prowess. Just last season we would’ve accepted a 1-1 draw on the road every single week, grateful not to lose! Now things are very different, with several match winners at our disposal we go into every game expecting to win. It certainly makes a refreshing change, in fact if we had had a little more rub of the green in the last few games then we could well be at least six points better off and a few more places higher up in the table. It’s no mean feat to be sat comfortably in 9th place in the league table but personally I feel that this is as low as we should be with our current squad. A league position of around 5th or 6th would be a fairer reflection of the way that we have played so far.
That just leaves me to wish you all a good weekend and to wish the Shrews luck for tonight’s game.
Keep the faith!
Skally
www.themightyshrew.co.uk
As is traditional at this time in early October, the international fixtures have disrupted this weeks league games and we find ourselves here at the Meadow a day earlier than we had anticipated. I personally am glad that we are playing the match tonight as it provides a chance for me to indulge in complete relaxation on my day off tomorrow! A long lie in followed by a couple of hours surfing the net and then the England match on TV sounds pretty good to me.
Whilst we are on the subject of the national team I feel I must express with regret that ever since the World Cup I have struggle to care too much about England matches. It pains me to say this as I am normally as patriotic as they come and really look forward to these games. Now I tend to see them as an annoying interruption to the Premiership calendar. I will certainly watch and probably enjoy Saturday’s game against Macedonia but if I’m honest I would rather watch Match of the Day Premiership footy in the evening. Let’s hope my love for England returns when I’ve finally got over the heartache of World Cup 2006!
Today’s opponents Macclesfield Town are a club who have had an unimaginably bad start to the season. To go twelve matches without a victory in this league is pretty much unheard of. It’s never nice to see a club going through such an appalling run of form, I hope that after this evenings game they can turn the corner and start putting some points on the board.
It’s amazing just how often a club sacks their manager and then manages to win their next match, we saw this recently when Leeds terminated the contract of Kevin Blackwell and then beat high flying Birmingham City 3-2 the following Saturday. I wouldn’t mind betting that Norwich City get the 3 points when the travel to QPR next week now that Nigel Worthington has departed. I can only hope that this trend is not the case for this evenings match as Brian Horton was given his marching orders by the Macclesfield board last week. The Silkmen are bound to be fired up to impress tonight under the leadership of Ian Brightwell.
The fickle nature of football never ceases to amaze me. It was only a couple of years ago during Jimmy Quinn’s brief spell as our manager in the football league that Brian Horton was being spoken of by many as the best manager in League Two. As our fans began to get on Quinn’s back as we struggled to find form, many used Horton as an example as the kind of manager we should be looking for to guide us forward. Macclesfield were of course a play-off chasing side at the time and now just two years on, the Silkmen are rooted to the bottom of the football league and Brian Horton is left without a job and with a severely damaged reputation. My full respect and admiration goes out to all football managers!
As if our opponents needed any more incentive for tonight’s game there is of course the added spice of the returning Jamie Tolley with the Macclesfield squad. Jamie will be keen to show the Shrewsbury fans just what they are missing if he takes part in the match. I don’t think that any complacency will rear its ugly head in the Shrewsbury Town dressing room but our failure to perform against sides at the bottom of the table proved to be our downfall last season and has been a bit of a worry in my mind in the run up to this match. It will be a blow to be without Derek Asamoah for tonight’s game but I still feel that we have more than enough quality to win the game comfortably.
It is a pleasure these days to be able to write and say in all seriousness that a 1-1 draw away from home is disappointing. Last week’s visit to Rochdale was the third game in a row that we had drawn but really should have won due to our superior attacking prowess. Just last season we would’ve accepted a 1-1 draw on the road every single week, grateful not to lose! Now things are very different, with several match winners at our disposal we go into every game expecting to win. It certainly makes a refreshing change, in fact if we had had a little more rub of the green in the last few games then we could well be at least six points better off and a few more places higher up in the table. It’s no mean feat to be sat comfortably in 9th place in the league table but personally I feel that this is as low as we should be with our current squad. A league position of around 5th or 6th would be a fairer reflection of the way that we have played so far.
That just leaves me to wish you all a good weekend and to wish the Shrews luck for tonight’s game.
Keep the faith!
Skally
www.themightyshrew.co.uk
