Saturday 25th February 2023: EFL League One: Montgomery Waters Meadow: Shrewsbury Town vs Wycombe Wanderers
In the wilds of Shropshire sits the quaint town of Shrewsbury. It was here that I was to witness a heavyweight bout, with the winners claiming the prize of a position on the edge of the playoff places at the end of the day.
Wycombe Wanderers travelled north in 7th place, just 3 points from the prize, and in fearsome form. They had yet to lose in 2023 and had lost just twice in the league since the start of November.
Gareth Ainsworth had been the man at the helm for them during this imperious run but, with QPR having tempted him to London to try and save their Championship status, it was down to new man Matt Bloomfield to keep this run going. Bloomfield had been in the post for just 3 full days before kick-off.
Steve Cotterill’s Shrews would be trying to end that run and close the gap to their visitors to just 5 points. The playoffs were within their reach before season’s end and a statement of intent here would go a long way towards achieving that goal.
The opening salvos of the match were encouraging fort the blue and gold Shrews as the chair boys looked to tip themselves over. Twice in the opening 5 minutes comical defensive errors from the visitors gave glimpses of goal to the hosts. The second of them was a back pass to thin air that the visitors scrambled clear at the last moment.
Further encouragement for the home fans could be taken from the early inability of Wycombe to coordinate their attacking play. Brandon Hanlan did great work to get free on the wing in the 9th minute, but he was forced to take on the shot alone when he looked up to see the box devoid of teammates. Marko Marosi, in the home net, was able to sit back and relax as the shot went soaring over the bar.
Unfortunately, the hosts weren’t doing much better with coordinating their attacks. Five minutes later Tom Flanagan played a tempting cross through the corridor of uncertainty that none of his teammates had gambled on. It would have been the simplest tap-in to open the host’s account, but with both teams playing it safe the score remained at 0-0.
In this atmosphere laced with caution it took until the 21st minute for the game to provide it’s first shot on target. It went to the visitors after great work from Hanlan picked out Garath McCleary on the edge of the box who lashed his shot on target, only to be denied by the keeper’s delicious dive.
Despite some dreadful distribution from Marosi and disastrously disjointed attacking play from the hosts early on they were the ones to open the scoring in the 31st minute. Christian Saydee forged space for himself on the right and his cross was flicked home at the near post. Stadium announcements credited the goal to Shrews number 9 Ryan Bowman, but it has gone down on records as a Jordan Willis own goal.
None of the home fans cared who had scored it though. All that mattered was that they had conjured a goal from nothing and now they had the lead they were determined to hold onto it.
Saydee once again poured forward on the wing and this time he had three willing runners to hit in the centre. Faced with so much unexpected choice he hit the wrong one, going for a marked man at the near post when a dink to an unmarked teammate at the back post seemed the smarter option.
The game became a 100mph end to end feast for the eyes, a welcome change from the morass of mediocrity so far, but neither team was able to add to the scoresheet.
Wycombe had shaded the game in all areas of the first half except the one that mattered, as the Shrews heading into their half-time den a goal to the good.
Less than a minute after the second kick-off the Shrews had come perilously close to deleting their advantage and it would have been all their own fault. They conceded a corner thanks to a shanked clearance with all the time in the world to get it right.
Wycombe smashed the ball across the keeper to level the scores, until the ref pulled them back for a dubious foul in the box.
The hosts failed to learn from that huge let-off and should’ve conceded moments later. This time they had Brandon Hanlon to thank for nipping the ball off the toes of the much better placed Joe Jacobson and ballooning the ball over the bar from close range.
With this opening excitement out of the way things settled down into a midfield snooze fest, filled with mediocrity and a ton of mistakes from both sides. The most interesting things to happen over the next 30 minutes of play were: Jacobsen being replaced by Jason McCarthy and a heaping helping of glorious drop goals from almost every Wycombe player, bar the keeper.
The flow of the half was not helped by the hosts liberal use of time-wasting tactics, or Steve Cotterill’s refusal to inject fresh legs off the bench. It took until the 84th minute for Cotterill to final turn to his bench for inspiration, thanks to seeing his attackers throw away a 3 against 1 showdown with the keeper. Just 2 minutes after the ensuing double substitution one of the new men had doubled the Shrews lead and secured the 3 points.
Max Stryjek could only palm a cross from the left into the path of Rekeil Pyke in the centre of the box. He took full advantage of this gracious gift by stroking home into the waiting net.
Doubling the Salop score was enough for them to secure the double over their visitors for the season.
It was also enough to move them just 6 points away from the playoff places as they reached the most crucial part of the season, the run-in.
Despite this win it was the level of performance that proved the most durable thing the Shrews would take from the match.
They managed a paltry haul of just 8 points from their final 13 games of the season to finish in a distant 12th place; A cavernous 28 points from the play-offs they had been threatening to gate-crash.
The Football tourist 