Marcus Braddock looks ahead to the weekend visit of Oxford United.
After wins on consecutive Saturdays, can Shrewsbury Town make it three Saturday wins in a row against a strong Oxford United team? The U's currently occupy seventh position in Sky Bet League One and are on a run of four wins in a row. Three from home games (Wimbledon, Accrington and Southend) and one away at Ipswich Town. It's not their first winning sequence of results, earlier in the season they strung 18 unbeaten games together which has pushed them toward the top of the table. They've also shown a willingness to score more goals than are strictly necessary and have netted three goals or more nine times in League One - more than a quarter of their games this season so far.
Head to Head
Of the 41 league games between us, Town have won 18 times to Oxford's 12 but the U's have won three times in cup games which takes their wins up to 15. Last season, Oxford won 3-2 at the Montgomery Waters Meadow after a hat-trick from Gavin Whyte, who now plays for Cardiff City.
Top Scorers
Matty Taylor: 16
James Henry: 14
Tariqe Fosu-Henry: 10
Assists
James Henry: 8
Cameron Brannagan: 4
Chris Cadden: 4
Rob Dickie: 4
Clean Sheets
Oxford have kept clean sheets in 24% of their away games and 45% of all their games in League One.
Oxford Away Stats
They've scored an average of 1.5 goals per away game and concede an average of just 1.3 per game, both of which are better than the league average
They've scored 52% of their away goals in the first-half and have conceded 59% of their away goals in the second-half.
Although they've scored a hatful of goals, their most common away result is 1-1 which has happened three times this season.
Referee
Seb Stockbridge from Tyne and Wear. Games this season: 26. Yellow cards: 82. Red cards: 5.
Squad News
Centre-Back Elliott Moore may or may not play depending upon when his partner goes into labour, congratulations in advance! Oxford have no new injury concerns.
Summary
This is going to be another tough one but particularly so with United looking like promotion candidates. They score rucks of goals and are in great form which is an obvious worry for us. However, we've always shown a tendency to play better against the better teams, maybe that's the way things work everywhere but I'm hoping it holds true this weekend and we can get something out of the game.