Match ticket £20
Train (Sheffield-Stockport) £17-70
Train (Stockport-Shrewsbury) £22-80
Tea £1-80
Total £62-30
Like Wrexham, Shrewsbury is one of those in between places. On my spreadsheet of grounds this is listed as 'Midlands', along with Hereford, Wolves and others, but it could just as easily be in the North West. Today I cycled into Sheffield station, then caught the Trans-Pennine service to Stockport. It is possible to do the journey via Birmingham, but I opted for the slightly cheaper route of going via Stockport and Crewe.
Shrewsbury is a curious place. As it began to pour it down, I had a quick explore of the town. It has the feel of a university town like Oxford or Cambridge, with rows of independent shops, winding streets and a meandering river. There is plenty of history here for those interested.
Shrewsbury Town's Greenhous Meadow is located a few miles from the town centre, and is one of the newer Football League grounds on the block. Sadly I never made it to Gay Meadow, though I did pass the old site (which has been transformed into blocks of flats).
I arrived at the ground absolutely sodden, having been caught in "that fine rain that really soaks you". E-ticket in hand, I took up my place in the ground, and after a cup of tea, began to dry off. The pre-match entertainments were impressive, with a helicopter landing on the pitch before taking off again. There was a large military contingent in and outside the ground, particularly from the West Mercia Regiment.
The opposition were the source of an unlikely problem for the home side. Apparently if you Google "STFC", Swindon Town comes up as the top result rather than Shrewsbury! So the home side owed them a beating today for that reason alone. In fact it was the Wiltshire side who took the lead when John Goddard headed in early on. Swindon dominated the opening gambits, and their right-back fired narrowly over shortly after. The most noticeable away player was Kasim, who resembled Diego Costa in his gait and appearance. Shrewsbury scraped back into the game when Ivan Toney (on loan from Newcastle) made it 1-1 shortly before half-time. This was a welcome relief to the home fans who were starting to get twitchy.
At half-time I admired the club-themed vending machines dotted around the concourse of the stand, before part 2 commenced. It fell a bit flat - the first shot I noted was on 74 minutes when Swindon's Brophy fired over, while his opposite number (O'Brien) hit high and wide shortly after. Shrewsbury then suddenly came alive for the last 10 minutes, and a swift counter-attacking move was nearly converted by Leitch-Smith, only for him to be foiled by the away keeper.
There was still time for some final drama, with Shrewsbury's Gary Deegan sent off in the 88th minute for a second yellow card. This was a decent point for Shrewsbury who were in the relegation zone of League One. As a game it had been fairly scrappy but overall it had been worth the visit. I arrived back home at 8:30 after luckily catching a delayed train from Stockport to Sheffield. This was an excellent trip to do on what was something of a miserable October day.
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