Big game, big preview...
Shrewsbury Town FC
Sky Bet League 2
Saturday 24th January
Greenhous Meadow, Oteley Road, Shrewsbury, SY2 6ST
Kick-off: 3pm
Ticket news:
Tickets are still available until midday tomorrow in the club shop and online. Prices don’t increase on match day however and you can buy on the day. Our next home game is the following weekend; January 31st when we play Oxford. Ticket details here.
Team news:
GW will have an almost fully fit squad to choose from; only Jon Ashton and Harry Worley are definitely out. The big news earlier in the week was that David McAllister has signed a permanent deal with the club and will be available to play against his former employers. Macca will continue to wear number 12.
For Shrewsbury, midfielder James Wesolowski is out for the season after suffering knee ligament damage.
View from the dressing room:
GW: “I’m pleased with the team’s development; I think the mentality of everyone within it is that they want to get better. They want to improve, they want to be better in their next game than they were in their last and I see them between games doing the work it takes to be better in their next game.
“Everybody is good at taking criticism on board, everybody knows that a pat on the back is one thing but if you’re going to be better next time around you’ve got to add something to your performance.
“Frankly, I fancy the mood that they’re (the players) in. I like where they’re at. I know that these are a good outfit with good players, well managed. They’ve had a good start to the season, they are what they are and we go four points behind them by winning."
Read GW's thoughts ahead of the game here.
McAllister: “It’s great to be here, it does help that I’ve played for 3 months, I really know the place inside-out now so it’s great to finally make the full transition.
“We have to aim for automatics; (promotion) there’s no doubt about that. We’re good enough for it, we know that and if you look at the last couple of games we’ve come really strong and we just need to continue that run now and I don’t think anyone can stop us.
“With them being so strong at home, if we can go there and get a result it’ll make other teams stand up and take notice.
“He called me into his office the other day just to have a chat about where I think we can do them damage so I gave him one or two little tips.”
Sign into Boro Player for full coverage of GW and McAllister's press conferences.
The story so far…
Shrewsbury are looking strong this season after relegation from League 1 last year, currently third and just three points off top spot. The Shrews’ recipe for success has been a stingy defence and a terrific home record. They have the best defensive record in the whole of the Football League (16 goals conceded) and are also unbeaten at home in the league. 11 wins and two draws at Greenhous Meadow demonstrates the size of the task at hand.
Recent form:
Last time we met:
A deflected Darius Charles strike was enough to secure the three points when Shrewsbury visited the Lamex earlier this season in a victory GW described as “ugly”.
Betting with SkyBet:
No surprise that Boro are heavy outsiders for the win at the weekend, 15/4 with official league sponsors, Sky Bet.
Fancy the game to be drawing at half-time and Boro to sneak it in the second half? That’ll be 9/1.
The first goalscorer value lies with Tom Pett. Despite scoring three in his last four games, Pett is a massive 18/1 to be first on the score sheet and he’s 6/1 to score anytime.
Not going to the game?
Listen to live match commentary on the Boro Player service where you'll also find full match highlights and full post-match interviews on Sunday. We'll also be providing live minute-by-minute updates on our Twitter account, with the key incidents reported live on our Facebook page. The best match day photos will be posted on the club's Instagram account whilst short highlights of the game will be on our YouTube page on Sunday.