Shrewsbury Town

Town: Burton, Carpenter, Astley, Smith, Holmes, Evans, Easthope, Gwilliams (Fletcher 75), Anderson (Stephenson 60), Molinuex, Ryan (Jones 72). 

Subs not used: Rowley. 

Goals: Molineux 29, 70. 

Comfortable victory today which will give the boys confidence to build from. 

Two strikes from Sam Molinuex, one in each half were more than enough to earn the win today as apart from a fine save from Burton in the 81st minute, when Macclesfield did finally find a way through, Callum stood tall long enough to deny a consolation goal. What was different from previous games for us was we had to go through the middle of their defence as both our wide players were kept relatively quiet. 

It was through some good interchanging passes that saw Molineux create our first attempt at goal with a fine strike only for the Macc keeper to parry wide, this was closely followed by a fine left foot shot by Easthope only for him to be denied. Finally on 29 minutes a Gwilliams corner was met by Holmes who competed well, the ball dropped to Molineux and his firm shot was met by the keeper but he put enough on it for the ball to creep over the line for deserved 1-0 lead on half time.

Limiting Macclesfield to no chances was our main priority in the second half as we felt confident enough to do so and also still create chances again through central areas as opposed to the wider positions. The second goal in these games is always the safety cushion to avoid dropping two points and even with the majority of good possession and a good chance missed by Evans it wasn’t until the 70th minute that we got that cushion. Good play from Evans and Easthope sent Molinuex through on goal and he hit his first time shot into the roof of the net confidently to put us 2-0 ahead. 

Overall very pleased with the clean sheet and the general way we defended but we have be alert to the oppositions throw ins, corners and quick free kicks because we are getting punished too often and making life harder for ourselves.  

Pete Wilding