Walsall CheckaTrade Preview

7 November 2017

Marcus Braddock previews this evenings CheckaTrade game with Walsall

With the F.A Cup round one and draw out of the way we move on to our other cup competition, the CheckaTrade Trophy. Our opponents are fellow League One rivals Walsall, who have played five times since we met them in the league at the start of last month. They followed their home draw with us with similar results at home to Blackpool and away at Milton Keynes and then an excellent 3-0 win at Doncaster. Since then they've lost at home to Southend and were knocked out of the F.A. Cup away at Newport County. The League for this group of the competition shows that we've definitely qualified for the next round but with Coventry playing WBA U21, who've already conceded six times, Walsall will need to take all three points to ensure their progress. If they do that, we will drop to second position but still qualify for the next stage of the competition.

Top Scorers

Erhun Oztumer 7
Amadou Bakayoko 4
Dan Ageyi 4
Tyler Roberts 4

Assists

Joe Edwards 2
James Wilson 2
Luke Leahy 2

Clean Sheets

Goal Distribution

In away games, Walsall have found it difficult to score in the first half with just 1 goal in the first half of games this season. They've also conceded eight times in the same time period but their second half performances have been much better. Second halves this season have seen eight goals scored for Walsall and only five conceded. The first fifteen minutes of second halves have been the most prolific with five scored and just one conceded.

Squad News

Walsall-Tyler Roberts will be missing because of international call up for Wales under 21's.

Shrewsbury-Jon Nolan will miss out because of a hip injury. Junior Brown is side lined for the rest of the season.

Summary

This is likely to be a tough game as Walsall push for definite qualification for the next stage of the competition. They need to win, or draw and then win on penalties and have shown they can hold a team with eight draws to their name this season. They have a fair few goalscorers this season so goals can come from anywhere and we're going to have to hold our nerve if we're to keep our unbeaten home record.

COYB!!!

Marcus

Match Previews

Match Reports

Town 0 Walsall 1

7 November 2017

Late Walsall goal ends Town's unbeaten ho

Town: Craig MacGillivray, Joe Riley, Ben Godfrey, Mat Sadler, Omar Beckles, Abu Ogogo (c), Arthur Gnahoua (Christos Shelis 81), Lenell John-Lewis (Carlton Morris 67), Bryn Mors, Alex Rodman (Shaun Whalley 67), Stefan Payne

Subs: Cameron Gregory, Louis Dodds, Ebou Adams, Chris Gallagher.

Walsall: Liam Roberts, Joe Edwards, Luke Leahy, Jon Guthrie, Adam Chambers (c), Kieron Morris, James Wilson, Liam Kinsella, Zeli Ismail, Amadou Bakayoko, Maz Kouhyar.

Subs: Mark Gillespie, Nicky Devlin, Simeon Jackson, Erhun Oztumer, Reece Flanagan, Shaun Donnellan, Daniel Agyei

Referee: Trevor Kettle
Assistants: David Playwright and Paul Thompson
Fourth Official: Simon Mather

Team News:

Jon Nolan missing for Town after aggravating a hip injury on Saturday. Toto Nsiala is rested, Shaun Whalley drops to the bench. James Bolton is suspended for the competition.

Tyler Roberts is missing for Walsall as he's been picked for Wales U21.

Attendance: 1,701 (171 from Walsall)

Summary: Town fall to their first home defeat of the season after a sending off and a last minute goal from Walsall.

A cool breeze greeted the teams as they lined up before the start of the game. Town start the game kicking toward the Pro Vision CCTV Stand and it was a nervy opening for Town with Walsall looking to take hold of the initiative with Ismail going close after a couple of minutes.

With just under 10 minutes gone, Town started to push Walsall a little down the left side with Alex Rodman winning a couple of corners. Walsall continued to look for openings but found them closed off relatively quickly by Town’s unfamiliar defensive line up that looked like a back three whilst defending, with Rodman and Riley tying to make progress down the flanks.

Best chance so far came from Arthur Gnahoua who made space to shoot from 20 yards, which forced a save from Roberts in the Walsall goal.

With five minutes to go until the halftime break, Rodman found Stefan Payne in space in front of goal but he couldn't quite beat the keeper this time. In truth, the first half wasn't particularly spectacular but with both teams looking to give as little away as possible, things got a little congested in midfield and opportunities were limited.

Half time: Shrewsbury Town 0-0 Walsall

Neither team made any changes at half time. After five minutes of both teams trying to force their game on the other, Walsall won a couple of corners and a free kick but Town were equal to the pressure and rappelled Walsall’s advances, knowing that a clean sheet was all that was needed for Town to get a home draw in the next round by finishing top in the group.

With 67 minutes gone Paul Hurst refreshed his attacking options by introducing Shaun Whalley and Carlton Morris in place of Alex Rodman and Lenell John-Lewis. Within seconds Whalley put Stefan Payne in on goal with possibly the best chance of the game so far but it wasn't quite close enough to break the deadlock.

With just over 15 minutes, Walsall mad a change, bringing Reece Flanaghan on for Maz Kouhyar. Not long after Leahy and Ben Godfrey clashed with the former ending up on the floor and the latter taking an early bath after Trevor Kettle saw enough in the challenge to produce a straight red card.

With around ten minutes of play left, Christos Shelis replaced Gnahoua to shore things up a little following Godfrey's dismissal. In the final minutes, Walsall pushed on a little and made a little progress down their right wing but nothing of any great danger was produced until the final minute when Bakayoko found space to put the ball away and take the three points and first place in the final standings, and home advantage in the draw for the next round.

Final Score

Shrewsbury Town 0-1 Walsall

Ticket News

Walsall Ticket News

5 November 2017

Special prices for the CheckaTrade Trophy Game

Shrewsbury Town v Walsall
Tuesday 7th November – 7:45pm Kick-Off
Montgomery Waters Meadow
Checkatrade Trophy

Tickets are now on sale for our home game with Walsall in the Checkatrade Trophy.

Season tickets are not valid for this game and season ticket holders will have to purchase a ticket for the game.

Match tickets are available before the day of the game and on the day of the match.

Special prices have been announced for the game with admission costing-

Adults - £5
Juniors / U18s - £1
Seniors - £1

Only the East Stand will be open for the game for home fans.

Tickets can be purchased in the following ways:
•    In person at the Montgomery Waters Meadow ticket office
•    By calling 01743 273943
•    Via our online ticketing site - click here

Tickets bought online can be printed at home and scanned for stadium entry.

Season Ticket and FanCard holders will have the game added to their cards, no physical tickets will be issued.

Supporters can use their FanCard to easily purchase this game at the special prices.

Parking is available at the stadium but must be pre-booked, Wyevale is a short walk and costs £5 - Parking Options.

If you are interested in coming as a youth group then we provide free tickets for groups of up to 25 people - for more details click here

There are several options for the game if you would like to sample our matchday hospitality, you can see this here - Matchday Hospitality - or contact out Commercial team here - commercial@shrewsburytown.co.uk

If you can't make it to the game you can listen to full match commentary, or watch the game if you are an International fan, on IFollow Shrews or download the app here to listen if you are out and about - IFollow App.

Standings