Shrewsbury Town

Town: Callum Burton, George Carpenter, Jack Richards, Dom Smith, Ben Burton, Alex Fletcher, Scott Ryan, David Easthope (Ryan Hickman 25), Niall Flint, Jeff Watkins, Josh Ginnelly (Matt Jones 65)

Not used: Alex Ashton, Sam Molyneux

A good performance first half against a Wigan team that included two regular first team players Shaun Maloney and Gary Caldwell.

Town had two scoring opportunities early on but failed to convert them. The boys stuck to the game plan of becoming compact when out of possession and this prevented any penetrating passes through the midfield.

Wigan hardly threatened Callum Burton's goal throughout the first half and the team coped well in a fast paced game.

The second half was different, Maloney saw a lot of the ball and began to dictate play in the middle third, again the boys coped fairly well until a slight lapse in concentration on the hour from Dom Smith and Ben Burton allowed the Wigan striker to get between them and lift the ball over the advancing goalkeeper Burton. 

Wigan were then awarded a penalty after Jennings cut into the box to be sandwiched between full back George Carpenter and centre back Smith. The penalty was duly despatched sending keeper Burton the wrong way.

19

Eight minutes from time saw Wigan awarded a free kick on the edge of the box, Maloney bent the ball around Town’s four man wall and Burton did well in getting across to turn the ball away from goal, Wigan's strikers were more alert than Towns defence and they got onto the loose ball and beat Burton with a shot close to goal.

Overall a pleasing performance and a good learning experience for the young lads who competed well for long parts of the game.

Steve Reece