Shrewsbury 0 Exeter 2: Ollie Westbury & Jonny Drury analysis

Shropshire Star

Jonny Drury and Ollie Westbury analyse Salop's 2-0 defeat to Exeter. Toto Nsiala gifted the first goal to the visitors before Salop missed a string of chances. A second came midway through the second period and Salop failed to produce a comeback.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to ShropshireStar.com, my name is Jonny Jury, his name is Ollie Westbury

00:12and Shrewsbury have stuttered a bit, looked like they were back on track with a draw and

00:16a win but they've come unstuck here against Exeter tonight, live on Sky. Feels strange

00:22being here on a Thursday night to be honest Ollie. It does, it does, I agree. I described

00:27to you in the game a Shrewsbury performance that was good from one line on the pitch,

00:32their own penalty area to the other line on the pitch. It kind of feels like Shrewsbury

00:36have lost this game rather than Exeter have maybe won it. Yeah, I think there's a little

00:40bit of that involved isn't there. Obviously, I mean the elephant in the room is the mistake

00:46isn't there. Ten minutes in, it's an inexcusable mistake really, it's a bit needless. I know

00:51that town have tried to play and they've played well at times but he's got caught in possession,

00:57on the edge of his 18-yard box and don't get me wrong, he's gone on, he's finished it well

01:01but it just feels like a very unnecessary risk at that stage of the game when you're

01:06looking to go for your back-to-back wins for the first time since February 2023 and it's

01:11just not what you need and Shrewsbury aren't going to start picking up points unless they

01:17stop conceding goals. I don't know what the exact stat is but it feels like every time

01:22they play they let in at least two and that means you've got a score three to win doesn't

01:25it and that ain't going to happen very often and unless Shrewsbury can shore up at the

01:29back and unless they can stop letting in goals then this is going to be a very challenging

01:35season and a lot of it is not like they're getting cut open. They're not getting cut

01:39open, they're just making daft mistakes and you can't legislate for that. The only way

01:46to change that is to take people out of the team but yeah, it was a bad start but to be

01:53fair to town they responded brilliantly from that. That was probably the best 45 minutes

01:58of the season that we've seen from them so far after they went behind in the 9th minute

02:03or something like that. They were excellent, they played some really nice football, they

02:07passed it around nicely and right when you thought here we go, 1-1, their goalkeeper

02:12would make a save or they'd miss a really good opportunity. I think there was three

02:14or four chances that they had and to go in trailing in that football match in the first

02:19half is absolutely criminal. They should not have been trailing. The second half was

02:25a bit of a different story but yeah. You said there if you concede two you've got to score

02:30three. Feasibly in this game, Salop could have scored three and that's not saying shots

02:34from outside the box. They had some really good clear-cut chances. There was a couple

02:39in the second half but mostly in the first half. It's a case of, like I say, if you can't

02:47score keep the ball out the net but they can't keep the ball out the net so they need to

02:49score. But they are creating the chances. For me, I don't watch Shrewsbury as much but

02:55kind of a severe lack of quality in that final little section. Up to then I was really, really

03:01impressed by Shrewsbury tonight. If you don't address that, it's going to be a long, hard

03:08season. It could be even harder if they don't address that. I don't know what the answer

03:13is, whether it's personnel. They've lost Daniel Udo and I think Daniel Udo and his team would

03:17probably score a decent amount of goals because Shrewsbury do create, or certainly did tonight.

03:22They were probably some of the most clear-cut chances that we've seen them have this season.

03:28Probably one that hasn't gone, won't go down on the stats actually is the penalty claim

03:33the Leo Castledine. When he's running through, he's got to shoot there. He's kind of played

03:38it back to Mal Benning. He's had a shot, obviously it's hit Ryan Woods' hands and it's a clear

03:43penalty but he just should shoot and score. He's six yards out, he just needs to finish

03:48it and it's those decisions that are costing them at the moment which is just really, really

03:53disappointing from a Shrewsbury Town perspective.

03:55In terms of, obviously they've got the weekend off this week playing Thursday night but it's

04:02kind of difficult to know what to say. We'll talk more about it on the Shrewsbury's podcast

04:06tomorrow but they just need results. They just need something to fall to. It's not the

04:11case of just one thing falling, they just need to find a way of being more clinical

04:16in the box.

04:17Another point and we'll talk about it more on the podcast and we'll wrap up the video

04:19on this. Made changes late tonight, didn't really have a chance to make as much of an

04:25impact. We've got someone like Tommy O'Reilly sitting on the bench. I know he got 22 minutes

04:29I think he was on the field but surely you need your creative players, your Sago Juniors.

04:34Paul Hurst has just been asked about that in his post-match press conference and he

04:38said that the subs didn't really make that much of an impact, albeit the ones that he

04:44brought on later on didn't have that much time to make that much of an impact. He said

04:51that he felt like it was going okay so obviously that's his divine right to make those decisions.

04:56He's the boss isn't he? It's tough isn't it because last Saturday he made changes and

05:03as soon as he made changes he switched formation albeit against 10 men and they scored four

05:08goals, switched formation and it turned the game around. I think they just ran out of

05:13steam second half. I think Exeter changed, the opposition changed, they changed formation,

05:18they made changes at the break. It's very rare that you see a side go in leading at

05:21a break and they come out in the second half and make a double change. It basically tells

05:28you that the 1-0 scoreline wasn't really how that first half went. Perhaps the only thing

05:35was probably the triple change, that one right at the very end was perhaps a little

05:40bit... if you want those three players to come on and make a difference. But I think

05:44really Trousby's race was run by that point. They did look as if they ran out of ideas

05:50a little bit in that second half as it wore on and perhaps they just needed to be a little

05:53bit more direct as Exeter dropped in a bit deep and probably didn't quite press them

05:57as hard as they did in the first half.

05:59Another defeat for Shrewsbury doesn't get any easier at all. Final score here from the

06:03Meadows, 7-0 Exeter 2. All the rest of your reaction head over to ShropshireStar.com

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