Louis thoughts ahead of the SkyBet League game with Fleetwood
Louis Dodds pre-match thoughts ahead of Town’s first match of 2017.Town will be looking for a first victory over Fleetwood when they welcome the Trawlermen to the Greenhous Meadow on Monday night.
The sides have already met three times this season with Fleetwood coming out on top in the first league match up and in an FA Cup second round replay.
Though last time they traveled to the Greenhous, Town were the better side in a goalless draw.
Town forward Louis Dodds spoke to the press about Town’s recent results:
“If you look back we’ve had results where we could have definitely got something out of the game, and we’ve had key decisions go against us.
“If you give teams that are good a head start - you’re always going to be swimming upstream.
“We need to eradicate those dodgy goals that we’re giving away, and give ourselves a better platform to go from.”
Town’s last two league games have ended in defeats to promotion chasing Bolton and Rochdale, despite Town pushing their opponents hard in both games.
“It’s a small positive to take from a disappointing points return, because we should have got something out of both games.
“We give the other teams too much respect – we need to go in there and stake our claim on the game and say we are Shrewsbury and this is the way we want to play.”
Town currently sit 21st in the table, one point behind Bury who sit just outside the relegation zone.
“I think this is a massive month for the club, the management have already thought about bringing some players in.
“We’re almost there as a team – it’s just those little mistakes and fine margins. It should be an exciting month for the fans.
“We’ve got another half of the season to put things right and we’ve got a lot more points to play for and we can get up this league.”
Dodds is Town’s joint top scorer this season having struck seven goals in all competitions.
He was on the scoresheet last time Town and Fleetwood met as an extra time winner for Fleetwood gave them a 3-2 win and a place in the FA Cup third round.
“It’s been frustrating playing against them, we should have beaten them in the first FA Cup match at home and then in the replay after Adam [El- Abd] got sent off things started to go against us.
“We owe them one and we’ll be looking to get three points.”
Unusually, this will be the fourth time the sides have played this term and we’re only just half way through the season.
“It’s a strange one, because I’ve never had a season where you’ve played the same team four times.
“It’s one of those where we’ve got to look at their strengths and do what we did to upset them at their place and keep them out as well.
“I don’t think there’s been many games where we’ve been blown away and been battered by teams, so we just need to realise the games 90 minutes and we can’t just play well for 70 of them.”