Shrewsbury Town

Midfielder looks forward to the trip to Kingsmeadow

Shrewsbury Town midfielder Jim O’Brien is relishing being back in the team as he looks ahead to the trip to South London to face AFC Wimbledon
Jim returned to the side last weekend for the first time since the home win against Chesterfield in mid-August.
O’Brien admitted that it was good to be back and he is now hoping he is over his injury woes and ready to make an impact in blue and amber colours.
“It was good to get back in the team and hopefully I can stay in now,” Jim told the press.
“I was half expecting to pick up niggles and stuff. Like I said in preseason I was maybe a few weeks behind everyone else at that period.
“So, I was expecting to pick up other things because when one things not right and when one things healing, other things compensate for that so you end up getting tightness and soreness where you probably wouldn’t get it before.
“I’m maybe getting a bit tired in the games, but we will just take every game as it comes and I won’t worry about it.”

Town have enjoyed a difficult start to the season, but Jim believes the players have to remain positive in order to rise up the table.
“I think maybe we were a bit hard on ourselves,” admitted Jim.
“As some of the lads pointed out after the Bury game, you look at a team like Chesterfield who think they are flying and us that think we are stuttering, and we are on the same points at that stage.
“So I think we were a little bit hard on ourselves, but now I think we need to start putting points on the board, that is really important.
“You don’t want to get sucked in when the gap starts appearing, you don’t want to be under that gap, so it’s important that we start putting points on the board.
“But, we are doing the right things and its fine margins that are catching us out at the minute.”

AFC Wimbledon were promoted from League Two last season and after a difficult start to the campaign they have picked up in recent weeks including a 2-1 victory over Charlton last time out. O’Brien has been impressed with the way they have started the campaign.
“They’ve done really well and we know they’ll be dangerous,” said Jim
“We know they will flood areas and we are working hard this week on a game plan to combat that.
“I think they will be hardworking first and foremost, and we will watch some stuff tomorrow. You can go along way with hard work in this league, look at Burton last year. So, you can go a long way with just basic hard work and then if you add quality to that as well then you’ve got a chance.
“I don’t know too much about them if I’m honest, but at this stage I’m trying to focus on what we’re going to do. That sounds a bit cliché, but it really is about how we are going to play against them in terms of what we are going to do when we’ve got the ball.
“I try not to focus too much on what the other team’s going to do. I try and concentrate on my own game and yes you can have little bits of information that will help you along the way, but it’s not something that I overly look at.”

Despite recent loses to Bury and Scunthorpe, Jim is confident that the team aren’t far away from finding their best form.
“I think we are going to click,” Jim said.
“It’s maybe taken a bit longer than it should, but I think we might be pretty close to that. It’s important that we keep working hard in training, getting to know each other as people, getting to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and I think it will click eventually.
“It’s maybe taken a lot longer that we thought it would, but that happens in football. You look at Scunthorpe and they haven’t had a big turnover and I think that will go a long way for them this season, because everybody knows each other and that’s important.
“But, we are working on it and we are working hard, and sooner or later it will click.”