| Wrexham face local rivals Shrewsbury Town in the
all-ticket derby at the Racecourse as we look to end a run of three
straight defeats. The two games we had at
home last month were forgettable affairs with our last goal and victory
at the Racecourse coming against bottom placed Lincoln at the end of
September.
Shrewsbury started the season on fire but their
encouraging start has so far proven to be a false dawn as Gary Peters'
side are, believe it or not, on a worse run than us, with their last victory coming
eight games a go when they defeated Accrington at home 2-0 in mid
September.
This poor run of form has resulted in Shrewsbury
dropping from top spot in the league to thirteenth position and they
have so far accumulated 16 points from their opening 13 games.
Away from the Meadow, life has not been the best for
Shrewsbury with their only win coming on the opening day of the season
when they hammered Lincoln 4-0 at Sincil Bank.
But their home form has not been good over
the last month and Peters shared fans frustration following the
goalless draw at home to a Mansfield side that started last week bottom of the
Football League.
"If you draw 0-0 at home to a club who are bottom of
the League, the fans have every right to be upset," moaned Peters.
"I'm moaning about it as well - as playing against 10 men should be a
situation you can turn into a win. You can't fault the lads' work-rate
and determination, but the quality wasn't there."
Top scorer for Shrewsbury is striker Dave Hibbett who
has netted seven times so far this season in his 13 league games after
joining the club for a nominal fee from Bradford in the summer.
Recent Encounters:
Our victory at the Gay Meadow last season was a historic
one as we turned out to be the last ever team to win at Shrewsbury's old
ground with Michael Proctor scoring the only goal of the game in the
second half.
Shrewsbury are on a run of two consecutive victories
at the Racecourse after running out 3-1 winners last season and 2-1
in the season before last.
In fact, this 2-1 victory came on the back of a 1-0
victory earlier on in that season and this was their first win against
us since December 1994 and was our first defeat in six games against
Shrewsbury.
The overall head-to-head in the league sees us narrowly edging it win 17 wins compared to their 16 and there have been
9 draws in the 42 league games between the sides.
Team News:
New signing Matty Collins from Swansea is expected to
be named in the starting line up after Mark Jones has been ruled out
with a back injury and Silvio Spann is suspended following his red card
at Notts County last weekend.
There is some good news with Ryan Valentine now fit
enough for a place on the bench following a groin injury and Neil
Roberts and Simon Spender have recovered from knocks they collected last
week.
Neil Wainwright, who started his career at the
Racecourse, is in contention to start following his loan move from
Darlington and manager Gary Peters may make further changes up front.
Michael Symes has put pressure on the front two of
Kelvin Langmeand and David Hibbert after scoring twice for the reserves
in midweek.
Steve Leslie is available after missing the Mansfield
game last week with a foot injury but Andy Cooke and Ben Davies are long
term absentees.
Elsewhere in League Two:
Despite turning up almost an hour late, Chester still
managed to win 1-0 at bottom placed Lincoln last night and this leaves the
Imps bottom of the league.
Mansfield are also level on points with us but they
have a better goal difference and will be looking to maintain
their recent upturn in form when they entertain a Macclesfield side that
has only won twice so far this season.
The MK Dons lost surprisingly at home to Stockport
last weekend which ended a run of eight straight league victories for
Paul Ince's team and they face a difficult task with a visit to our next
opponents, Wycombe Wanderers, who dropped a place to 9th following the
2-2 draw at Chester last weekend. |
