Shrewsbury Town

75 minutes for Weso and Natty and goals from Smith and McAlinden

Town: 1 Mark Halstead, 2 Sam Patterson,3 Mickey Demetriou, 4 Darren McKnight, 5 Dom Smith (c), 6 Nathaniel Knight-Percival (12 Callum Grogan 75), 7 Jordan Clark, 8 James Wesolowski (14 Chris Gallagher 75), 9 Liam McAlinden (16 Ethan Jones 85), 10 Scott Vernon, 11 Shaun Whalley

Subs: 13 Shaun Rowley, 15 Matty Jones

With no reserve game for a couple of weeks Micky Mellon arranged for a practice game with Wigan Athletic to give a few of the lads who hadn't seen much first team action to get some minutes under their belts.

It also gave a chance for James Wesolowski and Nathaniel Knight-Percival to get their first competitive game after returning to full training following their cruciate ligament problems.

Town put in a good attacking display in the first half with Vernon, McAlinden, Clark and Whalley all testing the Wigan keeper a number of times. At the other end Wigan created their own chances but nothing that really tested Mark Halstead in the Town goal.

Town took the lead just before the half-time break when Jordan Clark delivered an inviting free-kick into the back post and Dom Smith rose well to head the ball down and past the Wigan keeper.

Mark Halstead was having a fairly quiet first half but when the Wigan 10 got the ball down and powered forward Halstead had to be at his best, the 10 drove to the edge of the box and struck a strong low shot but Halstead was down quickly with a smart save at full stretch.

Town got a nice second goal five minutes into the second half and it was Clark again who was provider, this time he put in a good delivery towards the back post from out on the right and Liam McAlinden rose well to put a header back across goal to make it 2-0 to Town.

On the 75 minute Town made two changes with Callum Grogan and Chris Gallagher coming on to replace Nat Knight-Percival and James Wesolowski in a straight switch. Both players had looked comfortable during their first run out since the early part of the year and it was good to see them back out there in the Greenhous Meadow pitch.