Gareth Ainsworth fires strong statement to Shrewsbury opponents

The Salop boss won his first away game at the New York Stadium on Saturday as they beat Rotherham 2-1 in south Yorkshire.

After a quiet first half, Taylor Perry scored his first goal of the season, which was also his first since December 2023, to give his side the lead.

Steve Evans' team reacted when their captain, Hakeem Odoffin headed in from close range to level the scores.

But Shrewsbury took the lead again within a minute when Perry got away down to the left. He crossed for John Marquis, who kept up his fine goalscoring form, to fire Shrewsbury to victory.

Ainsworth has now taken 18 points from the 14 games he has overseen, and he has given Shrews a huge chance of League One survival.

"The players the fans, everyone involved, they are all buying in, and we are a dangerous team to play right now," he said, reflecting on the win at Rotherham.

"We do not have the greatest position in the League One table, but you look at what we are reeling in now. I think there are some teams who are fearful of playing Shrewsbury, which is brilliant.

"That is what I wanted to do when I came here. I wanted Shrewsbury to be a tough place to come, I wanted us to win away from home, and that was my first one on the road.

"It goes a long way in helping this survival campaign. Honestly, the boys, they are surprising me at times. I work with them at training every day. We do loads of talking, we do lots of one-on-ones and resilience work. They were fantastic today, they really were.

"Once we went 1-0 up, I always thought they might reply, Jamal Blackman made one of the best saves you will see this season - without a shadow of a doubt.

"If that is in the Premier League, that is being shown hour after hour on Sky. Hopefully, he will get the credit for that today.

"To reply to their goal within a minute. Taylor Perry with a fantastic run, and John has to be there to finish it. His record is brilliant since I came in - ridiculous for a striker, but you can see his effort.

"They are all buying in."

The victory meant Shrewsbury finally got rid of an unwanted statistic they have carried around with them for some time.

It was the first back-to-back victories in league football since February 2023, when Steve Cotterill was still in charge.

Ainsworth has been saying for some time that breaking that run is going to go a long way to achieving League One survival this term - and he has warned it won't happen again.

He continued: "That is a fantastic way to break our back-to-back two-year duck. That will not happen again under me, I will tell you that. I am not going to wait another two years. Hopefully, we can pick up a lot more points between now and the end of the season."

Shrewsbury are back in League One action in midweek when they make the trip to Reading - looking to make it three successive wins.