Shrewsbury Town

Town fall to narrow defeat at Oldham Athletic

Oldham 1 Shrewsbury Town 0

Saturday 13^thOctober 2012

: Wearing, Carpenter, Phillips (Smith 88), Holmes, Richards, Evans (Easthope 61), Westray, Jones (Ryan 61), Musslewhite, Stephenson, Molinuex.Town

: Gwilliams, Burton.Subs not used

Narrow defeat in the score line but could have been very different if it wasn’t for Connor Wearing in our goal. Numerous saves from Wearing, some routine and some terrific always gave us a chance of staying in the game and as we probed forward, at times we created good chances but just lacked that clinical edge, that bit of composure or possibly confidence to capitalise on.

We found ourselves behind on 15 minutes to the only goal of the game when a cross was met by the Oldham midfielder who wasn’t tracked to head firmly down giving Wearing no chance to save low to his right. Too many times in the first half our midfield was repeatedly over run, out passed and out fought and in many games that is where the battle is won. It wasn’t until the 40^thminute we began to pass the ball quicker and with purpose which did result in a guilt edge chance for Jones who found himself free in the middle of the area only to hit a tame shot straight at the keeper and see us finish the first half at 1-0.

The second half did become more even and open as we felt we had more than half of the possession without really taking advantage. Our best chance falling to Molinuex who found himself in two minds to shoot low or chip the keeper from 25 yards when he was 1v1 with the keeper but in the end struck straight at him. Half chances fell to Carpenter, Westray and Evans but none that troubled the Oldham keeper as it was Wearing who was forced into making the more difficult saves.

On reflection we must take the positives from the game and concentrate on those as opposed to highlighting the negatives again. The boys must work harder, support the ball quicker and improve their decision making because at times they can do it so need to start to believe in doing the good things for longer.