Marcus Braddock looks ahead to Saturday's trip to Fleetwood Town
This weekend sees Shrewsbury Town travel to the Lancashire coast under the cover of stormy weather as they look to continue the recent good form. Fleetwood have interesting form, it's not that dissimilar to ours, a fair few draws interspersed with the occasional win. However, on a couple of occasions they've handed out real beatings, namely beating Scunthorpe 5-0 in September and Doncaster 4-0 last Saturday. In Scunthorpe's case, they were in the middle of a poor patch of form but Doncaster had built up a pretty good head of steam until Accrington and then Fleetwood beat them. Looking at the match stats, the Doncaster game was pretty even with the possession around 50/50. They also had a similar amount of shots to the home team but it was the accuracy that seems to have made the difference. Doncaster failed to register with any of their four attempts on target and Fleetwood getting four out of five, so it's pretty clear that they're an incisive attacking force when the mood takes them.
However, Fleetwood haven't done so well at home with just one win and three draws in League One at Highbury all season. That single home win was a 2-1 against Bradford on September 1st and although that may give us some hope going into the game, you can bet that home form will be the highest priority for Joey Barton and his team.
Top Scorers
C. Evans 8
P. Madden 4
A Hunter 3
Clean Sheets
Four, all from away games.
Assists
A. Hunter with six.
Fleetwood Match Stats
Points per game at home 1.0 against a L1 average of 1.29.
Wins at home 17%. League average 32%.
Home defeats 32% beating the league average of 36%.
Goals conceded per home game: 1.5. League one average: 1.34.
Goals scored at home: 1.17. League Average: 1.27.
Fleetwood have not scored in the last 30 minutes of a home game all season.
More than 50% of the goals conceded at Highbury have been scored in the fifteen minutes either side of half time.
More than half of the goals scored at home by Fleetwood have also been in the fifteen minutes either side of half time. That amounts to four goals around half time vs. three scored at all other times.
Referee
Thomas Bramall. Games this season: 11. Yellow cards: 21. Red cards: 1.
Assistants: Barry Gordon and Ken Haycock
Fourth Official: Paul Marsden
Squad News
On Tuesday, Fleetwood boss Joey Barton made 10 changes from the side that beat Doncaster. Nathan Sheron was the only player from the weekend to be selected with most first team players rested. Fleetwood will be without on-loan left-back James Husband who suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury last week. Forward Conor McAleny, Midfielder Dean Marney and defender Tommy Spurr all have longer term injuries.
Town also rested plenty but having won 6-0 in the FL Trophy, John Askey will find it difficult to reward every good performance from Tuesday night. Charlie Colkett has returned to parent club Chelsea for treatment on a foot injury.
Summary
There is an opportunity for either team to get their first back-to-back victory in League One this season although a draw is probably the most likely result when you look at the form. Having said that, we've lost as many away as we have drawn away so Fleetwood might fancy their chances of improving their home record. Looking at the top scorer and assist maker, it's clear they have at least two considerable threats in Ched Evans and Ashley Hunter. However, Fleetwood have quality players all over the pitch, it's just a question of them finding the correct combination.
In our favour are the two wins we've picked up since last Saturday morning, which means that competition for places, is going to intensify. Whoever plays this weekend knows that they have someone sharp behind them ready to take over if necessary.
COYB!!!