Marcus Braddock previews the Boxing Day trip to Accrington
With Christmas all but over, Shrewsbury Town travel to Accrington in Lancashire to take on Stanley who currently occupy tenth position in Skybet League One. The last time we crossed swords with Accrington they were going great guns toward the top of the division but we managed a 1-0 home win. That was early in October and it was their only defeat in a run of six wins in seven but their form has dropped away a little as winter took hold and hadn't won a game in seven games going into their away game at Plymouth last Saturday. That 3-0 away win will have done their confidence no harm at all and given our away form they are likely to be champing at the bit as they go into their first of two seasonal home games.
Top Scorers (League games)
Sean McConville 8
Billy Kee 6
Offrande Zanzala 4
Jordan Clark 2
Old Friends
This Boxing Day we bump into Jordan Clark who was a Micky Mellon Signing in 2014 and played over fifty times for us in all competitions. I'm not so sure how a player as good as he is ended up leaving but it is nice to see him doing well at a good club. He's made well over 100 league appearances and has scored 11 times and helped Accrington achieve promotion since joining in 2016. Fellow Micky Mellon signing Andy Mangan is also in the Accrington squad and he's another one it's nice to see playing at a good level. He joined at the start of the season but hasn't been quite as involved as he would have liked with just five appearances in all competitions.
Stats
Accrington have earned an average of 1.3 points per home game this season winning 30% and losing 30% at The Crown Ground.
They score an average of 1.1 goals at home but concede 1.2 making an average of 2.3 goals per league game at home.
Accrington tend to score most of their goals toward the end of the game with 8 scored in the last 30 minutes at home.
Stanley also concede more goals in the second half with 7 conceded in the last half an hour.
Referee - Sebastian Stockbridge from Tyne and Wear. Games this season: 21. Yellow cards: 64. Red cards: 1.
Assistant Referees: Andrew Williams and Richard Kendall
Fourth Official: Stuart Butler
Squad News
Neither manager has any new injury worries so both could name unchanged sides.
Summary
Our form is beginning to look pretty good but we're going to need to improve results on the road if we want to make any serious upward progress. Accrington will want to build on their win on Saturday but their last home win in League One was on October 13th so there may well be a little trepidation from the home side that we could exploit. However, if we're to get anything at Accrington we'll have to earn it.
COYB!!!
Merry Christmas!!!