Shrewsbury Town debrief: Goal dearth costing Salop so dearly

Their most recent game – a 1-0 defeat to Charlton at the Croud Meadow – means they sit second from bottom having taken just three points from their opening six games.

Gassan Ahadme’s goal four minutes into the second period was the game’s decisive moment, but what were the talking points from a disappointing afternoon in Shropshire?

Lack of goals

The clash was the fourth time in league action this season, whereby Town had failed to score, and that is starting to become an issue.

They have netted just four goals this campaign, and most of those came in the 3-0 win over Leyton Orient a few weeks back.

Town are having some bright passages of play, where they get up to the opposition’s penalty area, but they are struggling to turn that promising possession into clear-cut opportunities.

It is quite similar to last season in the sense that Town do not get themselves into positions where supporters are waiting for the net to bulge.

With the well-documented issues they have had keeping the ball out of the goal at one end and not scoring enough at the other, it is easy to see why they have struggled to pick up points.

Unforgiving league

League One this season is ruthless – there is no other way to describe it.

Paul Hurst said himself there are as many as 16 teams who will be hoping for a play-off place.

And with every passing difficult fixture that goes by, there is an equally challenging one on the horizon, and that is no different this weekend with Mansfield away.

Tommi O’Reilly

The big talking point this weekend was the absence of one of their better and more creative players in the Aston Villa loanee.

He has impressed in his short spell in Shropshire so far, and with Town crying out for a goal, it looked the obvious choice to bring him on.

Yet Hurst decided against it. He will have his reasons, but if their issues in front of goal persist, he will have no choice but to introduce the winger.

It was perhaps strange not to see him in the starting XI, but even more so for him not to get on to the pitch at all.

The spotlight will be on how that situation is handled this weekend.

Options

At one stage this season Shrewsbury hardly managed to fill a bench.

But with someone like Josh Feeney, who did pretty well on his first full start, returning from injury, the Town squad is looking far healthier.

Josh Kayode is out for six weeks with a calf injury, but the rest of the squad is healthy.

Jordan Rossiter is close to coming back from a knee issue, and when he is available, Hurst will have three difficult decisions to make.

George Nurse and Aaron Pierre were the unfortunate ones to miss out last weekend, but one more will miss out then too.