Marcus brings his weekly look at all things Shrewsbury Town
It was Emirates FA Cup time again at the weekend with Town travelling to Ashton Gate in Bristol to take on City. A draw away to Bristol City is a pretty decent return considering the size of the club and their league position, but it leaves me with a feeling that is becoming more common as the season progresses, disappointment. We looked the better side for a fair proportion of the game against a good quality but out of form Bristol. When they scored the opener, it seemed harsh, given our performance but the quality of the goal was a reminder of the quality throughout the home team. It was good to get to half time without further demonstrations of excellence from the Robins, giving Sam a chance to scatter motivational words of wisdom.
Whatever he said seemed to have an almost immediate impact, and we equalised with a reminder of our quality from Sean Goss. It was his presence of mind that impressed me as much as anything, there was only one place the ball was going, and you could tell that before he struck it. His threading of it, through a crowded box and then in off the post gets better every time I watch it, a really classy goal to earn us a replay.
I mentioned disappointment earlier, which is probably a result of how well we've been playing. Not for the first time this season, we've defied expectations so significantly that I'm actually disappointed not to have won. Before the game, a draw was looking like a very good result against a much bigger team, and I'd have taken one before the game. But we performed so well that a new expectation popped up during the game and in the end, it feels more of a missed opportunity than a decent result.
Maybe I focus so much on my own team and their performance, that I lose a little perspective. Objectivity is difficult when it comes to something you love, and it's sometimes handy to get an outside opinion to calibrate my own. I was having a drink with a pal who supports a Premier League team, and he was quite impressed with our result and the goals and couldn't understand me wanting more. He's right of course if you take a step back and look at some of our results and performances, we've improved considerably since last season and expecting, even more, seems a little greedy.
Another thing I can see better when I take a step back is the fact that we're in the draw for the fourth round and that brings a bit of excitement, regardless of whether we actually manage to win the replay. We're sharing ball number 13 with City for tonight's draw, which takes place during BBC1's coverage of the Arsenal vs Leeds game tonight.
This week's games see us back in action, away from home again, as we travel to Doncaster Rovers. They've have had a patchy season so far although they've beaten Oxford at home and Peterborough away in their last three games, so we could be in for a hard evening.
Saturday brings us home to play Lincoln City in Skybet League One, another team with patchy results but another team that's beaten Peterborough in their last three games, this time at home. They also put five goals past Ipswich at home in their previous three but have struggled a little away from home with just two League wins.
The Lincoln game sees a pre-game tribute paid to club supporters who sadly passed away in 2019, may they rest in peace.
Marcus