All the info ahead of this evenings game with Coventry
Attendance:5,960 (610 from Coventry)
Martin Wild reports from Greenhous Meadow
Town manager Graham Turner has reacted to the weekend home defeat to Scunthorpe by making four changes to his starting line-up. At the back Joe Jacobson and Michael Hector are restored to the side and there are further changes in midfield and up front. Aaron Wildig comes in for Mark Wright and Terry Gornell earns a quick recall to partner Marvin Morgan after missing out on Saturday, with Tom Bradshaw not even making the bench.
And the changes paid immediate dividends when centre back Darren Jones opened his account for the club inside three minutes. Jermaine Grandison did well to force a corner against his former club and when Paul Parry put a deep flag kick to the back post, Jones climbed high above City keeper Joe Murphy to loop a header into the North Stand goal.
It was a great start for Shrews and piled more misery on the Sky Blues who are still searching for a first league victory at this level following their relegation in May.
Murphy was having a torrid time of things and just after William Edjenguelle had seen yellow for a crude tug on Morgan, the keeper was found in no-man’s land again from another Parry set-piece and was lucky to have cover behind him this time. It was all Shrewsbury first ten with Coventry barely able to make it beyond halfway.
They had their first shot on goal with 17 minutes on the watch but Carl Baker’s effort from all of 30 yards was food and drink for Chris Weale and posed no threat of an equaliser. It was only Weale’s second touch of the ball and the other one was fielding a routine back pass.
Bang on 20 minutes it got worse for the visitors as Edjenguelle again attracted the attentions of the match official for getting up close and too personal with Morgan. Parry struck from the resultant free-kick which may well have taken a deflection off Matt Richards on its way into the net with Town’s second doing little to improve the mood of the travelling fans gathered behind that goal – with only just over 600 having bothered to make the trip up the M6.
It was mostly one-way traffic with City offering next to nothing going forward and Gornell might have done better when Morgan carved out a really good chance for him five minutes before the break. Morgan cleverly held the ball up to slip his fellow striker in but when Gornell’s first touch took the ball slightly away from him, and with Murphy quick to reduce the angle, the number 24 could only skew his effort well wide when he perhaps should have put this game to bed.
Half Time: Town 2 Coventry City 0