Ollie Westbury on Shrewsbury's 1-0 win over Lincoln City

Shropshire Star

Salop took a huge step in their quest for survival with a Boxing Day win over Lincoln. Morgan Feeney netted the only goal of the game, as the victory helped Gareth Ainsworth off the foot of the table.

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00:00The lights at the Crowd Meadow have gone out, however Shrewsbury fans will be celebrating

00:06into the night after they collected their second win of the Gareth Ainsworth era here

00:12at the Crowd Meadow on Boxing Day, which has not been happy hunting ground for Shrewsbury

00:17in recent years. They've won just two of the last 15 on this day of the year, albeit most

00:21of those have been away, but today they got the result that they needed. They got a 1-0

00:26win against Lincoln City, who had play-off ambitions and have been in decent form so

00:32far this season, but Gareth Ainsworth's side scored early. Morgan Feeney with a goal in

00:37the 10th minute and they clung on. They kept their second clean sheet of the season. The

00:41defending at times this campaign has not been good enough, but you cannot fault them on

00:47this occasion as they were absolutely superb in a rear-guard display in severe fog here

00:54in Shropshire on a very chilly day after Christmas. It was a late Christmas present

01:00for the fans. The town boss made five changes. It was potentially surprising with the momentum

01:05that they gained against Wigan at the weekend, so that perhaps might have caught Lincoln

01:11off guard with the boss ringing the changes. That makes it 11 changes in the last two games,

01:17but they picked up four points, which is the all-important stat, and they kept their second

01:22clean sheet of the season. Their first since the end of August and it was an absolutely

01:26terrific defensive display, which I have already said. The first goal and the most important

01:32goal scored by Morgan Feeney came from a clever corner routine and the credit has all gone

01:37to Gareth Ainsworth's assistant, Mr Dobson, who is in charge apparently according to Ainsworth.

01:43He delegates his set-piece duties and Mr Dobson is the man who has created the goal. It was

01:50a very, very clever one. Interchanged between Leo Kasselheim, Jordan Shipley, got to Mal

01:54Benning at the byline, he pulled it back and Morgan Feeney poked it home. The two Feeneys

02:00and Aaron Pierre were absolutely phenomenal today, as was Mal Benning who got to the byline

02:03on multiple occasions and put dangerous crosses in. He almost got a goal as well in the second

02:08half, so absolutely terrific from Mal Benning just as much as it was from the rest of the

02:13Shrewsbury Town players. Taylor Perry came off at half-time. He picked up a yellow card

02:18but was pretty decent up until that point. Gareth Ainsworth choosing to be proactive

02:22rather than reactive for town. It gives them hope. It cuts their now six points adrift

02:28of Northampton Town who come here at the weekend on Sunday in another huge, huge match for

02:34Shrewsbury and they will be absolutely desperate and if they can get the all-elusive back-to-back

02:38wins for the first time since early in 2023, then it will leave Shrewsbury with a great

02:44chance of overcoming a huge deficit which was at one point ten points. It's now six

02:49and if they can get a victory against Northampton on Sunday, then that will come down even more.

02:55It feels like there is some, at last, there is some real room for optimism and Shrewsbury

03:00can head into the game with momentum and the exact same momentum that they had in coming

03:05into this one. It finished here. Shrewsbury Town 1-0 Lincoln.

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