Marcus Braddock gives his preview of tomorrow's game against Bristol Rovers
With last weekend's defeat at Luton a distant memory, Shrewsbury Towns next League one match is against Bristol Rovers at the Montgomery Waters Meadow on Saturday afternoon. Rovers are in a similar position to us with three points having lost every game in League One apart from a 2-1 away win at Wycombe in mid August.
We Meet again...
This weekend's game marks the return of two influential players from last season, Alex Rodman and Stefan Payne. Both left the club in the last couple of months after a great season and I for one was sad to see them move on. Since arriving at Rovers, both have been in first team action, with Payne inevitably scoring on his debut. Obviously we wish them both well at their new clubs but hopefully they'll be going home empty handed this weekend!
There has certainly been a pattern to the Pirates results so far this season with every one of their first five games finishing with a 2-1 scoreline. In their last couple of games they've lost 1-0 to Southend and 3-1 to Q.P.R, breaking one pattern but continuing the habit of conceding in every game so far this season. Looking at the timing of Rovers' goals, they have conceded most heavily in the last fifteen minutes of the first half and the last fifteen minutes of the second half with two and three respectively. However, when you focus on their away games, that pattern disappears as their three away goals were conceded at different times.
Referee
Antony Coggins. Games this season: 5. Yellow cards: 17. Red cards: 0.
Assistants: Ian Smedley and Mark Cunliffe.
Fourth Official: Kevin Morris.
Team News
Town have no new injury woes, just Abo Eisa who has a knee injury from last week.
Rovers have drafted in left-back Joe Martin on loan from Stevenage and goalkeeper Jack Bonham from Brentford and are available.
Summary
The difficult games just keep coming and this weekend is no different, Rovers need to start gathering points and so do we so it should be an exiting one. We also have returning players Stefan Payne and Alex Rodman who will be busting a gut to get a result. As I mentioned earlier, Rovers have yet to finish a game with a clean sheet whilst we have two, so defensively we may have a bit of an edge. Going forward we have another positive, Lee Angol who has the chance to make it three goal in as many games having scored against Luton and Manchester City. We really need a result this weekend, it will take the pressure off the players and management. In our favour is the fact that rovers haven't scored in their last six visits to Shrewsbury, meaning they have yet to score at the Montgomery Waters Meadow.