Ollie Westbury on Shrewsbury's draw with Northampton

Shropshire Star

Ollie Westbury gives his take on Shrewsbury's 1-1 draw with Northampton. Salop went ahead through Aaron Pierre as they looked for second win in a number of days. But four minutes later they were pegged back and despite pushing for a winner, it never came.

Transcript

00:00Here I am again at the Crowd Meadow after Shrewsbury have drawn their second game or

00:06third game of the Christmas period 1-1 against Northampton Town today in a very low quality

00:14affair. It was a very scrappy game, very few kind of chances and opportunities in the first

00:19half and Shrewsbury and the Cobblers went in at the break and it was nil-nil. Probably

00:26rightly so. The Cobblers had a couple of chances right on half time where Shrewsbury cleared

00:30the ball off the line but it was very scrappy. The ball spent more time up in the air than

00:35it did on the floor. The pitch was a bit bobbly and it was just a low quality affair. Shrewsbury

00:44in their game against Lincoln have got an early lead and they had something to really

00:47hold onto whereas they had to wait until the 60th minute on this occasion to score. Aaron

00:52Pierre, the man with the goal, his second goal in the Gareth Ainsworth era. George Lloyd

00:57did really well to get up high, win the initial flick on. John Marcus went through, saved

01:01by the keeper. Aaron Pierre fired it home to give Shrewsbury the lead. They'll be incredibly

01:06disappointed to concede within five minutes of taking the lead. That was a real killer

01:10blow for Town. They really needed to see out that period in the game to try and make sure

01:16they held onto that lead but they didn't. They conceded from a set-piece. To be fair,

01:20set-pieces was the threat all day for both sides. Shrewsbury looked dangerous from them.

01:25Northampton looked dangerous from them too. It was an area of the game that you felt would

01:30be really decisive. Free kick from the right, which Gareth Ainsworth, who had just spoken

01:34to us, said that he felt was not actually a foul even though he did think there was

01:38one shortly before the performance of the officials today left a little to be desired.

01:46For Town though, overall, it's a 1-1 draw. They were the ones that were pressing at the

01:50end. It felt like Northampton were happy with a point. Perhaps that's because they have

01:54the advantage of the six-point lead in the League One table. For Shrewsbury, the outlook,

02:00if you'd have asked anyone two weeks ago if they would have taken five points from a possible

02:05nine available, a win and two draws, unbeaten over this period, they would have no doubt

02:09taken it. But I think after leading in this game today, there is probably a tinge of disappointment

02:14that they haven't managed to come away with a little bit more. It would have put such

02:19a dent in that chase as they try to close down that pack above them in the league table.

02:27It would have put such a dent in that if they could have got the result today here at the

02:31Crowd Meadow. They move on to Blackpool away on New Year's Day, which will be a tough game.

02:37Obviously, Blackpool beat Shrewsbury here not that long ago. I think that was Gareth

02:41Ainsworth's second game in charge. So yes, the reverse fixture of that one as Shrewsbury

02:46make the trip to the seaside for New Year's Day. There are a few other things, our discussion

02:50today, Tom Bloxham was left out of the start and 11 Shrewsbury switch formation, which is

02:54something that they have done successfully. I think at the moment we just have to trust

02:58that the Shrewsbury Town boss, he knows what he's doing. He's managed to get eight points

03:02from seven games and Town have managed to score in each and every one of them.

03:06So he is tinkering from time to time. And I will be very, very surprised if there's no changes

03:11as they make their way up to Blackpool on New Year's Day, because they have played a lot of

03:14games in such a short space of time. The transfer window will open at some point soon.

03:19Well, it will open in just a couple of days time and Town will then have an opportunity

03:23to do some business. But there's no doubt that since Gareth Ainsworth has come to this football

03:27club, they have improved on the field. And let's hope that they can continue to do so

03:33and they can start to pick up more points as they go on.

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