Shrewsbury Town

The boys started brightly at the Shrewsbury Sports Village with Scott Ryan and Javier Roberts combining to send Roberts through on goal, but his shot was parried by the goal keeper and Scott Ryan’s rebound was also saved. 

Another neat combination saw Deion Evans send Ryan through this time but the keeper again pushed away Ryan’s powerful effort. 

Two more opportunities to score from good set piece delivery by Ryan and Jack Richards were not capitalised on. 

As the first half wore on our lack of control of the game and the amount of unforced errors the boys were making was a concern but we still managed to make a breakthrough in the 37th minute when the ball broke 25 yards from goal on the half volley for Dave Easthope whose right foot shot went into the bottom right corner of the net.

Due to our lack of control and possession, sloppy defending nearly allowed Bury to equalise before half time as they hit the crossbar from close range after a neat pull back from the touch line.

This was a sign of things to come and we started the second half slow and kept handing Bury the initiative. 

Bury came out the more dominant and hardworking team, dominating long periods of the second half with good possession.

Before Bury equalised they carved out another chance that was squandered from six yards but their equaliser eventually came after a long ball over the top wasn’t dealt with by goalkeeper Connor Wearing, George Carpenter or Warren Holmes and the Bury centre forward eventually rounded Wearing and passed the ball into an empty net. 

We then produced our best bit of play of the half as good play saw Holmes find Easthope in space in midfield. Easthope played a well weighted through ball to Ryan whose fierce shot was again beaten away by the Bury goalkeeper.

The winner for Bury came in the last minute after their right winger skipped past Jack Richards to deliver a cross that was headed back across Wearing for the winner.

The second half performance was a real disappointment after some bright spells in the first half. 

Throughout the game we made too many basic errors and after regaining the ball we frequently handed possession back too quickly. Some players can come away with some credit, however more focus and application is needed by many to reach the next level. 

TOWN: Wearing, Carpenter, Holmes, Burton, Richards, Evans, Musselwhite, Easthope, Roberts (Fletcher), Stephenson (Flint), Ryan (Molyneux), Unused subs: Burton, Jones, Flint, Fletcher, Molyneux.