Clean sheet for McNally in first Youth Alliance league fixture in charge
Town 0-0 Oldham
Town: Shaun Rowley, George Carpenter, Ryan Hickman, Ben Burton, Nathan Millis, Alex Fletcher, David Easthope, Matthew Jones (Niall Flint), Sam Molyneux (Jeff Watkins), Kaiman Anderson, Josh Ginnelly (Scott Ryan).
Unused subs: Alex Ashton
Shrewsbury Town’s youth side capped off a good first week in charge for new Head Coach Bernard McNally by picking up a valuable league point, and a first clean sheet of the season, against Oldham after dumping Histon out of the FA Cup in midweek.
McNally made three changes from the side who beat Histon 2-1 at the Glassworld Stadium for the Lactics clash at Shrewsbury Sports Village, with Dom Smith missing due to his Wales U19 call-up.
The new manager’s influence and brand of football was evident from the outset as Town looked to mould their game on the first team style as they kept possession with confidence and remained compact at the back to restrict the Latics’ attacking threat.
Town could’ve been 3-0 up within the first 20 minutes, but the chances went begging. As the game wore on, Town began to control the pace and could’ve taken all three points late on with another two chances but it wasn’t to be.
“I was very pleased with the way we played, the performance was excellent,” said McNally.
“The players are certainly adapting to how I want them to play. I want to play free-flowing football, but obviously you need to shut up shop at the back and we showed a lot of resilience on the day.
“Anything I do will be a replica of Graham Turner and John Trewick’s work from the first team with how they want to play the game, we’ll be no different.
“We’ll be starting off with our back four and the same principles will apply – to get the ball down and move it quickly, there will be a transition in the youth. If they get into the reserves, they can make that quick transition and be playing the same formation.”