00:00Welcome to ShropshireStar.com. My name is Jonny Drury. I'm here alongside Oli Westbury.
00:12After Shrewsbury Town have announced their new head coach, as revealed by Oli and the
00:17Star last week, Gareth Hainsworth was one of the top candidates for the job. He has
00:22been appointed as new head coach. We don't know how long his contract is currently. Oli,
00:29this appointment was expected, but if you look at it on the face of it, for a side who
00:34are where Shrewsbury are, it's quite a coup, really. He's got a big task on his hands,
00:40but someone who's won promotions from League Two, League One, took Wickham to the Championship,
00:45you know, if they were going to get a top candidate, they've probably got the top one,
00:49haven't they?
00:50Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think this is the most exciting appointment that there's
00:55probably been since I've been in this job as Shrewsbury Town reporter. It feels as if
01:00we're properly punching above our weight. The manager that was in, I say we, but Shrewsbury
01:05punching above the weight, you know, a manager that was, you know, last manager in the Championship,
01:10okay, probably didn't end the way that he would have liked it. But, you know, somebody
01:14that's got a distinguished EFL managerial CV being, you know, in charge of a big club.
01:22He's taken a club like Wickham from League Two all the way up to the Championship and
01:27done a pretty incredible job. I was going through that a couple of days ago. So, yeah,
01:32it's really, really fascinating to kind of see his career. I must admit, I've just been
01:38watching his interview and I've seen him say himself, like, that he'd heard that there
01:42were a few eyebrows raised, you know, I'm in that camp, you know. I thought to myself,
01:48would Gareth Ainsworth want to be the Shrewsbury job or would he be holding out for something,
01:53you know, near the higher end of League One? Because he is, I mean, it's a brilliant appointment
01:59that managed to convince him. And it feels like it could be the start of something because
02:05it's been doom and gloom at Shrewsbury Town for far too long now. It's been a tough, tough
02:10gig following the team and with the results. But, you know, he's mentioned it himself,
02:16you know, this could be the catalyst, the spark for some change. So let's hope and keep
02:20our fingers crossed that Gareth Ainsworth and his assistant, Richard Dobson, you know,
02:25can really bring that to the crowd meadow.
02:28Yeah, I think he's right in saying it would raise a few eyebrows and you could say potentially
02:33it's quite a risk, you know, for him, you know, reputation wise really. But he sounds
02:40that he's, you know, I've just listened to sort of 10 minutes of a 14 minute long interview
02:44and he sounds that he's very much invested. And if you listen to the players that have
02:50played for him and done well for him, he, you know, he's going to get every single last
02:55drop out of these Shrewsbury players and he's going to need to.
02:58Yeah, he seems like the kind of really positive character, somebody who's, you know, and you
03:03can see, you can sense that from the way he kind of does his interview. So, yeah, I mean,
03:09it's a brilliant appointment. It's one, you know, it's one that's really exciting. And
03:14the town are going to need that, you know, they're bottom of the league one table, you
03:17know, the results have been going against them. It's a little poor result last night
03:20against Worsley in the EFL trophy. So, you know, Shrews are going to need kind of all
03:25that kind of motivation and positivity that they can because, you know, from results and
03:29the way that things have been going here, there ain't a lot of that around at the moment.
03:33So they're going to need, you know, they're going to need, you know, everything they can
03:37to try and get themselves up and about for when it comes to the visit of Blues, you know,
03:41in a week's time.
03:43You know, he has got a big task on his hands and just in terms of, you know, last night,
03:49obviously at Walsall, it looked, you know, I've heard some people comment that, you know,
03:52Shrewsby looked like they're kind of down tools and it just wasn't great at all. But
03:58it sounds like he will have been watching that, you know, relishing the challenge of
04:03turning it round. I suppose it's a clean slate for all players now when he comes in, you
04:08know, the baptism of fire against Birmingham in a week or so, or a week and a half's time.
04:12But, you know, everyone's got a clean slate now.
04:16And I suppose the season starts from now for Shrewsby, really.
04:19Yeah, it's kind of a bit of a restart.
04:20It's an opportunity for everybody to hit reset, for everybody to have the chance to start
04:25again, to go again.
04:26You know, everybody will be kind of assessed and evaluated and his job will be to improve
04:33the players that he's got in the building because there's going to be nothing he can do
04:35until January anyway, in terms of bringing extra players in.
04:38So, you know, the job between now and then is to stay in touch with the pack.
04:42Isn't there until that they can kind of do some wheeling and dealing in the January window?
04:45If that at all is possible, I'm sure that'll be on the list of questions when we actually
04:49get the opportunity to speak to Gareth Ainsworth.
04:53But for sure, you know, it is a chance for a reset.
04:57It is a chance for those players who have perhaps been out of favour and have not quite
05:01had the game time that they wanted to be able to put a case forward for themselves.
05:05And, you know, you would have thought that they would have been doing that last night
05:08knowing that there was a very big opportunity, there was a huge chance that the potential
05:12new manager would have been watching that game.
05:14Yet it didn't feel like it by the way that they played in that second half.
05:19But anyway, that's gone now.
05:20There's no point dwelling on the past.
05:22You know, they've got, you know, just over a week on the training field and on the training
05:27pitch that he can kind of get his thoughts across, get his views across to the players
05:32and, you know, see if they can make some progress ahead of, you know, a massive game against
05:35Birmingham City, which as you mentioned yourself is by no means an easy game at all.
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