The Gaffer reflects on his first 12 months as Shrewsbury Town boss
It’s a year to the day since Paul Hurst walked through the doors at the Montgomery Waters Meadow.
What he found that day was a team that were bottom of the league, a team that hadn’t won in ten games and a squad devoid of confidence.
Today, Town sit top of League One and are unbeaten in 15 league games – their best ever start to a Football League season.
It’s a change in fortunes that the whole club can be proud of and Paul is pleased with how his first 12 months have gone.
“I look back on the last year very fondly”, said Hurst.
“I’ve had to make quite a lot of changes in terms of the playing staff, but we achieved our first target of staying in the league.
“We had a good summer in terms of recruitment, a good pre-season, we managed to take those performances into the league season and we’ve made an incredible start to the season.
“For the future, I think the exciting part is that we don’t know what is achievable, but we’ve certainly given ourselves a great chance of giving ourselves the best season the club’s had for some time.
“How good that is, is still very much open for debate and will play out over the next six months. It’s still early, but fingers crossed it can be an exciting season.”
In total, Town have played 53 games in the last year, winning 26 and losing just 14. It’s a win percentage that Hurst is proud of and one he would love to continue.
“I’ve been fortunate that I’ve won lots of games at every club I’ve been at”, said Paul.
“Joining Shrewsbury was a different challenge – to stay up – but we achieved that and over the course of the year our record has been very good.
“I think if it had been a season, with the point’s total we’ve got, we would have been in the play-offs, so that’s a good turnaround from where we were.
“This season has been a massive effort from the players to get the record that we have to date and we’re hoping that we can win a lot more games between now and the end of the season.”