Shrewsbury preview

Tonight we play west midlands team Shrewsbury Town at the New Meadow stadium. This is the Spireites' third league game this season, after beating Barnsley 3-1 on the opening day, then losing 2-0 at Bramall Lane to Sheff Utd on Saturday.

 

 

 



 

Shrewsbury came up from League Two last season along with Burton, Bury and Southend. They gained automatic promotion after finishing in 2nd place, and they also reached the fourth round of the League Cup. At the moment, they sit in 18th place in the League, ten places behind us, after losing 2-1 at home to Millwall on the opening day, then drawing 1-1 away at Bradford. They also made a good start to their 2015/16 League Cup campain, by beating Championship side Blackburn 2-1, at Blackburn, after goals from Tyrone Barnett and James Collins. They also had a good pre-season, drawing against Wolves and Cardiff, and beating Tranmere 4-1. For a newly promoted side, they have shown very few weaknesses so far this season. They only just lost to a strong Millwall side on the opening day, after taking a one goal lead. They also got a good draw away at promotion hopefuls Bradford, and obviously had a great win against Blackburn in the cup.

Saunders yet again has a fully fit squad to choose from for tonight's League One tie, including striker Byron Harrison who has recovered from his short term injury. New signing Angel Martinez is fit and eager, so he will definately be in tonight's 18 man squad. Saunders is unlikely to change the team too much from Saturday, after a good performance. However, he will probably (and hopefully) replace Ollie Banks with Martinez, who will be hoping to go straight into the starting lign up, after penning a two year contract with us on Sunday. Drew Talbot may also be unlikely to feature, after looking out of sorts on Saturday, so unless he is back to full fitness, we may see Charlie Raglan drafted into RB for tonight's game. Shrewsbury boss Nicky Mellon has no injury worries for tonight, apart from Nat Knight Percival, and James Wesolowski, who were already injured and will be featuring in a practice match this week. Shrewsbury have put out the same starting 11 for the last two games, and after success in both games (a win over Blackburn and a draw at Bradford), it is more than likely that they will keep the same team for tonight's game.

Biggest threat: Tyrone Barnett



The 29 year old, 6ft3 striker has experience playing for teams such as Ipswich, Peterborough, and Bristol City, and moved to Shrewsbury Town this February. Peterborough payed a big sum of £1,200,000 to buy the striker from Crawley in 2012, after he impressed on a loan spell for them. He only played 26 games for them, scoring 7 goals, and he was loaned out to Ipswich, Bristol City and Oxford in his time at the club, before joining then League Two side Shrewsbury Town. So far this season, he has two goals in three games, including the winner against Blackburn in the cup, and the equalising goal against Bradford. He also scored twice in Pre-Season, once against Wolves, and once against Tranmere. He is a big, strong, fast and clever striker who is very dangerous in the air. After we struggled to cope with Jabo Ibehre last week against Carlisle, and against Conor Samons at the weekend against Sheff Utd, who are both similar players to Barnett, it is clear to see where the weaknesses in our defence lie. Hopefully we can keep him under control, and the full backs will have to do their best to keep out any crosses coming in from the wide areas.

Score Prediction: Shrewsbury 2-2 Chesterfield

I think tonight's game will be interesting, and very close. I think we will score after the way we played against Sheff Utd, and after seeing that Saunders will be keen to sort out the lack of clinical finishing in our side. However, Shrewsbury have proven they are a tough team to beat. So far they have played two of the top teams in this League, and a Championship team, and they have won one, drawn one and lost one, conceding four goals in those games, but also scoring four. They have a strong back line, led by young, solid defender Connor Goldson, and they have a quality striker in Barnett, who has scored in both his last two games. New signing angel Martinez will hopefully improve our midfield unit, and should be able to provide a little more creativity, and give some good service to front men Novak, and Ebanks-Blake.