Shrewsbury Town

Shrewsbury Town FC is a professional football club that was formed in May 1886, originally playing friendlies before becoming members of the Shropshire League in 1890 and then winning the Welsh Cup the following year. 

Home games were played at the Racecourse Ground Monkmoor, Ambler's Field, Sutton Lane, and Barrack's Ground in Copthorne before they settled at Gay Meadow in 1910. This charming venue would be the clubs' home for the following ninety-seven years.

'Salop' to give the club one of its nicknames had progressed to the Birmingham & District League in 1896, a competition they won in 1922-23. A second Welsh Cup win was added in 1938 as they moved to the Midland League.

After a run of good seasons in post-war years winning the Midland League in 1945-46 and 1947-48, Shrewsbury were admitted to the Football League Division Three North in 1950. After a couple of seasons, The Shrews were moved to the South Division, and upon League re-organisation in 1958 they were placed in Division Four from where they were immediately promoted.

Shrewsbury reached the semi-final of the League Cup in 1960-61, where Rotherham United ended their run. Arthur Rowley was the star name of the period after joining from Leicester City as he rattled in the goals as Player Manager until concentrating on management after hanging up his boots in 1965. 

The team were eventually relegated back to the bottom tier at the end of the 1973-74 season, but they were promoted once again at the first attempt. A third Welsh Cup was lifted in 1977, and promotion to the League's second tier was won in 1979 along with a fourth Welsh Cup with Graham Turner leading the troops as Player manager.

He was assisted with valuable contributions from Ian Atkins and Paul Maguire as the side also reached the sixth round of the FA Cup having knocked out Manchester City on the way at Gay Meadow before Wolverhampton Wanderers ended the run after a replay.

The feat was emulated in the 1981-82 season when Burnley and Ipswich Town were seen off at Gay Meadow. Leicester City with Gary Lineker in the side proved victorious at Filbert Street in the quarter final before more Welsh Cup wins followed in 1984 and 1985. 

During that era, the likes of Bernard McNally, Steve Ogrizovic and John McGinlay starred for the club. In 1986 Turner departed to take over at Wolves, with Chic Bates taking over. Unfortunately, after a period of ten years in Division Two, Salop were relegated in 1989 and then once again in 1992. 

In 1993-94 Freddie Davis took his side up as champions back to the renamed Division Two, which was the third tier. In 1996 the club reached Wembley in the Football League Trophy, where they were defeated 2-1 by Rotherham United. Dean Spink provided much of the fire power of the period.

Another relegation came in 1997 and former player Jake King took over as team boss, while Roland Wycherley became Chairman with the aim of finding the club a new home ground. King was sacked in November 1999 after dealing with a low playing budget, with Kevin Ratcliffe taking over and steering the team clear of relegation on the final day of the season.

The 2002-03 season saw the club dump Everton out of the FA Cup in round three, but the League form was extremely poor. The team were relegated to the Conference following a home defeat to Carlisle United as Ratcliffe resigned following demonstrations. 

Jimmy Quinn was appointed, and he assembled a brand-new squad for the first season back as a non-league club. Shrewsbury reached the play offs at the first attempt and after defeating Barnet in the semi-finals, Aldershot Town were defeated at the Britannia Stadium in Stoke in a penalty shootout. 

Goalkeeper Scott Howie along with Luke Rogers, Jake Sedgemore and Martin O'Connor were amongst the heroes. However, their return to the League proved difficult with Quinn soon being replaced by Gary Peters. 

The club's youth policy started to pay dividends with Joe Hart being the star. In the summer of 2006 Wycherley cut the first turf at the site that would become the Shrews new home; The New Meadow. The 2006-07 season saw Town reach the play-off final at Wembley, which ended in defeat to Bristol Rovers.

Shrewsbury started the 2007-08 season at The New Meadow, but Peters didn't see out the campaign as he was replaced by Paul Simpson in March. Following a sponsorship deal the ground was re-named The Prostar Stadium for several seasons. 

In the 2008-09 season Shrewsbury once again reached the play-offs, and yet again they managed to get to the final. This time Gillingham broke their hearts at Wembley with a winner in the final minute. The following season was disappointing, which led to Simpson's dismissal.

In June 2010 former hero Graham Turner was re-appointed as team manager and after missing out in the semi-finals of the play-offs at the first attempt, Turner led the side to automatic promotion in 2011-12 at the re-branded Greenhous Meadow as well as having decent runs in both major cups.

Turner kept the side up in 2012-13 with a couple of games to spare, but the following season also proved a struggle. The veteran moved on in February 2014 with Mike Jackson stepping into the hot seat. He failed to restore The Shrews status, leading to his departure. Micky Mellon, the former Fleetwood Town boss came in to replace him.

Promotion was won in 2014-15, prior to Paul Hurst taking over as team boss and guiding Town to the play-offs in 2017-18. Charlton Athletic were defeated before the final at Wembley ended in a 2-1 defeat to Rotherham United. John Askey took over team affairs for a short while later that year before the appointment of Sam Ricketts.

Steve Cotterill arrived at the New Meadow in 2020 as the team ended in lowly finishes for two seasons before a midtable slot was achieved in 2022-23. The manager was twice hospitalised with covid, eventually resigning in the summer of 2023 to be replaced by Matt Taylor. Paul Hurst was appointed as Shrews manager in January 2024.

Shrewsbury Town FC will play in EFL League One in the 2024-25 season.

My visits

Shrewsbury Town 0 Hull City 0 (Saturday 26th October 1985) League Division Two (att: 3,587)

I made this exceptionally long journey by train on my own. I somehow made a hash of things after earlier changing trains at Stalybridge as when boarding a train at Stockport which I thought was headed towards Crewe, I quickly discovered I was going the wrong way, and the next station was Stoke! 

Fortunately, I had set out early and a train soon had me back passing Gresty Road where I got out for a look, free admission to the second half of a reserve game and time for a couple of pints. I arrived in Shrewsbury around 2.30 and naively took a taxi to the ground.

I met up with the rest of the lads I knew from Hull, and we decided to go in the Main Stand seats, as was the fashion back then, for some reason. The game was extremely dull and petered out into a goalless draw.

Gay Meadow seemed quite an attractive ground back then. The Main Stand was really two structures (one added later) and were all seated after having parts converted from terracing. To the right was a shallow terrace with a cover at the rear for away fans. 

Opposite was a long low cover. The River Severn ran directly behind meaning a lot of balls went for a splash. The club employed a ball boy in a boat to retrieve them! The remaining end was a narrow open terrace with a large school building overlooking it.

At the end of the game, I walked back to the station. It was about two hundred metres away up a path from the ground. I took a different route home via Birmingham, which was much less complicated and meant I could buy a sports paper at New Street to find out the other results.

It was a long day out!

Shrewsbury Town 2 Scarborough 0 (Saturday 19 March 1993) League Division Three (att: 3,901)

Boro had played at Chester the week before, but we still had enough interest for the minibus despite the season showing signs of petering out and the large distance. Steve again volunteered to drive, which was a great gesture since he'd already done a day's work as a postie. 

I was a bit melancholy as I'd been to my Grandad's funeral the day before. I needed a good day out with the lads to sort me out. They didn't disappoint! Road works lead to a mammoth ride via the Black Country. The beers were flowing as ever which meant to an impromptu stop being required. 

A few at a time the lads got out as we were in heavy traffic jams and got back to the bus to large cheers. Finally, Baz took his turn. To his horror the traffic cleared. As we were in a large narrow queue, we had no option to proceed. 

The poor bloke was purple by the time he'd chased up the road after us and jumped back on board. A can of the newly invented Tetley's Smoothflow soon revived him. You had to admire his class. he'd brought his own pint glass with him.

As ever I told everyone to get rid of their beer within ten miles of our destination. We parked up in the car park before the away end to be met by a minibus full of police. They were the very worst of the force imaginable and were after blood. Crusher always brought a fishing box that we put in the gap by the emergency door at the rear so we could carry an extra fan. 

The police spotted this and asked if we were going fishing? Someone ignited their ire by saying they were because the river ran past the ground. This was not the answer they were looking for. It was around 2pm by now and slowly the smart lads on the bus were moving away. 

The chief asked me who was in charge. I looked round to see my co-organisers heels disappearing around the corner. This left Steve and me. They started searching the bus. I had forgotten rid of my beers. This infuriated the police further. They had a real go at Steve who was cool as a cucumber which did not help their mood. 

They said that they had reports of some hooligans coming to town and they suspected that we were them! They even searched the first aid box for knives. Eventually they moved away but the pair of us had to go straight in the ground. The others came in a couple of minutes before kick-off roaring with laughter at our predicament. 

Apparently if they'd have searched the ash trays, we would have been spending a weekend in the cells with the promise of a return visit. Boro were frankly awful against a promotion chasing side. We gave a debut top a very unconvincing goalkeeping loanie from Watford called Simon Sheppard. This was about his best game for the club.

Nevermind. We started our journey back and soon cheered up. Steve stopped for petrol on the outskirts of Telford. I turned round to start collecting the fares only to find an empty bus. There was a pub across the car park and the boys were thirsty. The landlord was an absolute champion and delighted with the trade. Baz asked if he could do any food? 

He asked if chips and bread and butter would do? We were delighted with this development, especially when he asked for a quid. Baz started collecting up the money, only for our hero to say, "no, a quid for the lot". He wasn't silly. We put the other money in the pool table, juke box and had several goes on the football card. We stayed far longer than we intended. He was a very clever businessman.

We set off again and there was a debate about where we would stop for our main beers for the night. Steve was fine with wherever we wanted. Eventually we decide on Burton. This was an inspired choice. Baz had to ring his good lady who he now revealed he was meant to be taking out. 

The lads were silent in the pub as he told her we were in Burton. "What Burton Agnes?" (a small village about twenty-five miles from Scarborough). He broke the bad news and that was it. Time to go pub crawling. We had a terrific evening in the shadows of the Marston brewery drinking splendid ales.

There was one more trick for our party top pull on me. We used to have a young lad from York travel with us. We picked him up and dropped him off on the by-pass. On this occasion I was fast asleep when the lads woke me and said we'd forgot to drop him off and he'd have to be put up in Scarborough. 

I went spare, knowing how my parents would have worried if the same thing happened to me. It took me ten minutes of big arguments before I realised, he wasn't on the bus! We eventually got home around 2.30am. Just how Steve managed I don't know? 

It was a day that epitomised why I loved football so much. The game was awful, but we supported the team for ninety minutes. Most of all we all stuck together, and nothing would separate us. We had an incredible camaraderie that I will never ever forget.

Shrewsbury Town 2 Stevenage 1 (Saturday 23rd February 2013) Football League One (att: 4,818)

I was eager to visit the Greenhous Meadow, as The New Meadow was currently being known as to get ever closer to my goal of completing the '92'. I checked train times and despite being on night shift I reckoned I could just fit the trip into the spare time I had.

A train from Euston dropped me at Crewe, where I had just a few minutes to wait for the one carriage connecting service onto Shrewsbury. I was glad to have a cat nap for twenty minutes before arriving at my destination, as I knew that I had a fair walk ahead of me to the ground.

Shrewsbury really looked a picture as a town. It was the first time I'd walked through the centre, and I was immediately disappointed that I wouldn't be staying any longer, especially when I saw the quality of the pubs. After a walk uphill and back down to the River Severn I continued along the route that I'd worked out in advance.

Up ahead I saw some gents wearing scarves, so I followed them. It turned out that they drank in the Prince of Wales and were a branch of the supporter's club. A coach was parked up over the railway bridge, and the secretary kindly let me take up one of the spare seats for the £1.50 fare - £2.30 return. 

My mouth was watering when I was told that they served four or five real ales at the pub. They seemed a pleasant bunch to boot. If I ever returned to Shrewsbury, that would be the pub I would seek out. The coach got us to the ground fifteen minutes before kick-off 

I went round to the ticket office and chose to buy a ticket for the Main Stand despite the £24 fee as I needed a quick getaway at full time. 129 fans travelled up from Stevenage and were in the stand to our right. The stadium was quite likable for a new build, with all four stands being similar with good views, with the corners left open. The catering was also decent with proper homemade tomato soup and cottage pies amongst the produce on offer.

The visitors went one up with a quality strike from James Dunne, with The Shrews replying with a crisp finish from Paul Parry. I found it hard to believe I saw him score against Scarborough thirteen years previously. Tom Eaves on loan from Bolton caused a nuisance up front for Shrewsbury. The game was of decent quality on a sanded pitch.

After the break, The Shrews gradually got on top and forged a winner after a clever finish from Marvin Morgan. They could have made it three if not for a fine save, while the visitors also came close to an equaliser. Ironic song of the day came from the away section with "This is a s**thole, I wanna go home". I could only envisage that they wore blindfolds when walking around Stevenage.

I left as the board went up on 90 minutes and was back at the station for 5.30, after a lovely walk through a smashing town. It was as well that my walking was good, as my 5.40 train was cancelled. Fortunately, I managed to get on the 5.34 to Birmingham and was mightily relieved not to have stopped off for food or drink on the way. 

It had been a good day, but it could have been even better as I had forty minutes to kill at New Street, with the superb Wellington pub nearby, but my job came first. After a snack I sat back in my seat on the train and fell fast asleep and arrived back at Euston ten minutes ahead of schedule at 8.50. 

I had time to have another hour on the bed at home before heading in to work for my final shift before a few days off.

The pictures of Gay Meadow have been taken from the internet. I didn't realise I was ever going to publish a blog when I visited, so i didn't take any photos.