Shrewsbury fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Cheltenham Town at the Completely-Suzuki Stadium.

Cheltenham netted in the minutes either side of half-time to secure victory.

First, Sean Long bundled home in the 45th minute from a long throw-in before Alfie May shinned the ball home just a few seconds after the restart. 

Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill opted for a 3-5-2 formation at Whaddon Road with Christian Saydee partnering with Ryan Bowman up front.  

Jordan Shipley had been pencilled in to start at left wing-back following the news George Nurse has suffered an ACL injury and will miss the rest of the season. 

But the former Coventry man was called away just before kick-off due to his partner going into labour. 

That meant that skipper Luke Leahy started at left wing-back with Elliott Bennett on the right.  

Goalkeeper Marko Marosi also didn’t feature in Gloucestershire due to the finger injury he picked up in the win over Burton Albion last weekend. This meant Harry Burgoyne started his first league game in almost 18 months.

Cheltenham also set up in a 3-5-2 system with Dan Nlundulu leading the line alongside Alfie May. 

In what was a quiet opening 20 minutes, neither side created a chance of note.  

Shrewsbury’s brightest moment in the opening stages came from a well-worked passing move involving Bowman and Saydee.  

The duo combined well before finding Tom Bayliss in the box who saw a shot blocked by a Cheltenham defender. 

Mid-way through the first half, Cheltenham had a chance to take the lead following a corner.  

Caleb Taylor managed to get a headed flick inside the box and the ball then fell at the feet of Lewis Freestone who fired over.  

On the half-hour mark, Ryan Broom let fly from 20 yards out but the ball flew just past the upright. 

Minutes later, Town had an excellent chance to open the scoring with Leahy millimetres away from poking home a back-pass that goalkeeper Luke Southwood just managed to claim. 

Just before the interval, though, Cheltenham managed to break the deadlock. 

Following a long throw, the ball was flicked into the danger area with Sean Long managing to bundle it in from close range. 

The Robins doubled their lead one minute after the restart as the ball was played down the wing and the ball got played into the box. 

May received the ball and shot which bounced off the crossbar and in. 

This was the only action of the second half until the 78th minute as a game already low on chances found a new level for half an hour.

This bit of excitement came from Nlundulu who dribbled to the edge of the six-yard box and flashed a shot across the face of goal and out for a goal kick.

There was little of note for the remaining period of the game. Aiden O'Brien and Julien Dacosta came on as substitutes after long injuries but the chances remained as few and far between as they had been all afternoon.

As a result, Salop were condemned to defeat and now look ahead to next Saturday's game at home to MK Dons.

Teams  

Salop XI:   

Burgoyne (GK), Leahy (C), Pennington, Moore, Winchester, Bowman (Pyke, 67), Bennett (Dacosta, 90+4), Bayliss, Dunkley, Saydee, Flanagan (O’Brien, 86) 

Unused subs:  

Bevan (GK), Street, Bloxham, Caton 

Cheltenham XI:   

Southwood (GK), Long (C), Freestone, Sercombe, Nlundulu (Lloyd, 84), May (Perry, 89), Taylor, Ferry, Jackson, Bonds, Broom 

Unused Subs:  

MacDonald (GK), Williams, Bradbury, Brown, Norton  

Bookings  

Yellow: 

Liam Sercombe  

Tom Flanagan 

Attendance: 3,842