Dave Edwards: Shrewsbury Town's improved home form a long time coming

Shrews have now taken 10 points from a possible 12 on home turf, and it is so important, if they want to stay in this division, that their home form is good.

Too often over the last five or six years, it has been too easy to come to the Croud Meadow and get a result.

I know it is something that Gareth Ainsworth has really targeted to get better at.

I used to hate playing against his teams at Adams Park when we used to go and play Wycombe - it was always so uncomfortable as a player.

They were so aggressive, and it was never a nice experience. You feel like that is happening at Shrewsbury. I chatted with Ainsworth before the Wrexham game and that was his exact point.

We need to make the Meadow a very difficult place to come and play football. We need to make it horrible. We need to get results in Shropshire because that is going to be key to survival.

It is one thing to identify it. And then another to put it into action.

Saturday was a real rollercoaster and it was a miracle comeback when you look at the position they found themselves in at half-time - a goal and a man down. 

This is a different group now with a different mentality and it has been building slowly since the arrival of the manager.

They have a robustness and resoluteness about them - they seemed galvanised after they went down to 10 men which is not something we have seen from a Shrewsbury side in a long time.

What you need to do when you are playing with a man less is to keep a threat on the pitch. They did that with John Marquis and George Lloyd who were brilliant.

The running Lloyd was doing was sensational. He would run the channels after Salop would flip the balls behind the Mansfield defence.

Even though Town had 10 men it was like they were playing with 11 that is what he brings due to his work rate. It was really nice that he was able to get the winner, and it was a good strike with his left foot. 

Once Town led, as we have seen under Ainsworth, we witnessed another really committed defensive display - everyone was working so hard to make sure the gaps were as small as possible. 

When Aden Flint was thrown up front at the end, you are not going to beat him in the air, so it is about getting to the ball first after it lands.

There were some scary moments, but the way they put their bodies on the line to make sure the points were protected was fabulous.

You could see the crowd buy-in to that as well - the atmosphere really lifts around the place.

They have taken 15 points from 13 games since the boss came to Shropshire, and if they had played the whole season at that rate - they would be nine points better off. 

That demonstrates the huge upturn there has been in form. They are seven from safety, without the win it would have been 10 - and that would have been so damaging to the belief.

It has kept them in close contact with those around them with a game in hand - and now they need to turn that away form around.