Late Collins Equaliser Earns Shrews A Draw
Shrewsbury fought out a 2-2 draw in this afternoon’s friendly with Championship side Cardiff City.
But it took a late equaliser from substitute James Collins to maintain Town’s unbeaten pre-season programme, after The Bluebirds had come from a goal behind to lead.
Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro put Town in front early on but goals from Joe Mason and Anthony Pilkington looked to have given the Welsh side a victory in their first ever visit to Greenhous Meadow.
The match was delayed by fifteen minutes with the Cardiff team bus held up in traffic on the M54. But once underway, Town went ahead after just eight minutes when Lee Peltier was later than the bus with his tackle on Akpa Akpro. A clearer spot kick you’ll never see and the Frenchman converted from 12 yards.
Mason prodded City level from close range after 26 minutes with Pilkington twice stinging the palms of Jayson Leutwiler as the away team started to enjoy themselves on the plush surface.
Matt Tootle and Martin Woods both went close for Town as did Sammy Ameobi for the visitors in a well contested first half.
Both sides made a number of changes throughout with no fewer than eleven substitutes introduced at half-time. Cardiff scored within 10 minutes of the restart when Ryan Woods was penalised for a foul outside the box.
Town’s defensive wall was breached by Pilkington who found the corner with Leutwiler unable to get down low enough – or quickly enough – to prevent the ball from finding the bottom corner – much to the delight of the 872 away fans at the other end.
Ten minutes later Salop went close twice within a minute. Jordan Clark did really well to create an opening for himself but Simon Moore reacted well to turn the ball over.
And when the flag kick went short, the ball in just eluded Collins but found Connor Goldson ghosting in at the back stick.
The defender was at full stretch, however, and could only find the bar from three or four yards out.
Collins tested Moore twice in the last twenty minutes but he wasn’t to be denied a deserved leveller. Five minutes from time, Scott Vernon’s superb effort was brilliantly tipped onto the bar by Moore but the Irishman reacted to squeeze the ball just over the line to restore parity, in what was an entertaining encounter for 2,446 spectators.
Town: Leutwiler, Tootle (Paterson, 46), Sadler (Demetriou, 75), R. Woods (McKnight, 75), Grandison (Ellis, 46), Goldson (c), Ogogo (Clark, 46), M. Woods (Lawrence, 46), Barnett (Collins, 46), Akpa Akpro (McAlinden, 46), Brown (Vernon, 70)
Cardiff City squad: Wilson, Peltier, Morrison, Ecuele Manga, Malone, Pilkington,Whittingham, Dikcagoi, Ameobi, Mason, Macheda
Subs: Moore, Da Silva, Ralls, Noone, John, Connolly, Gunnarsson, Doyle, Kennedy, Oshilaja, Healey, Patten, Ajaya