Marcus Braddock takes a look back and forward in his weekly update
Town beat Evesham United 3-0 in the first round last week thanks to goals from Ryan Barnett, Reiss Corfield and Lifumpa Mwandwe. They've drawn Crewe Alexandra in the next round and that game will be played at Montgomery Waters Meadow on November 14th at 7pm. This week sees the under 18 team play Carlisle on Friday at 11 am at the Shrewsbury Sports Village.
Shrewsbury Town Ladies had another good result this weekend, dismantling Bilbrook 8-1 away. It's the third time this season that the Ladies have scored eight or more goals and the second on the road. This weekend sees them play at Stoke based Goldenhill Wanderers on Sunday at 14:00.
The mens first team had an excellent result against Aldershot at the weekend in the first round of the Emirates FA Cup. It was the first time in my memory that we were the top placed team in round one which made us the team to beat. The Shots came to us as the highest scorers in the National League and with hopes of an upset but after an even first ten minutes, Town changed gear and Aldershot weren't able to keep up. From then on we were never in any real danger of conceding, let alone losing. The only time I really felt any anxiety was just before half time when a spell of Aldershot pressure won them a corner. Had they scored then, the game may have been a little.
It was worrying to see Jon Nolan limp off in the first half, after the game Paul Hurst said he'd been nursing an injury for a while which makes his recent excellent form seem even better. Hopefully he wont be out for too long although in his post match press conference, Paul Hurst said he's a doubt for the Walsall game on Tuesday night. It was really good to see some of the players on the fringes of the first team get a chance to show us what they could do. Bryn Morris and Arthur Gnahou were both particularly good with Gnahoua showing his rapid reactions with an excellent goal. Craig MacGillivray commanded his area well in Dean Henderson's absence, the defence in front of him stayed solid and worked hard for another clean sheet, our eighth at home this season out of ten games. We've conceded three times at home this season and two of those were penalties in the same game! We really have an incredible team at the moment and I'm trying my best to savour all the moments because all too quickly they're gone in the changeable world of lower division football.
This week we welcome our close rivals Walsall to the Montgomery Waters Meadow for our final group stage game of the Checkatrade Trophy. Walsall need a result to ensure progress in the competition so it should be an interesting game. We have no game on Saturday because of international games so I'm going to try and pop down and see the under 18 team on Friday morning for my fill of real football.
Don't forget that the draw for the next round of the F.A. Cup is tonight at 19:00 on BBC2, we're ball number twelve with close rivals Port Vale number three and Hereford are number thirteen.
COYB!!!
Marcus