Just a quick mention for Shrewsbury Town

Widely fancied for the drop this season, and stayed up last season with little to spare.

Leading league 1 having won 9 and drawn 2 in their first 11 games, largely playing one up top.

Been keeping an eye on their results as I'd like to see Payne do well; always seemed a likeable bloke who never got the run of games he probably needed here. Their message board is great too; their fans seem genuinely shocked at the way they're going, quite reminiscent of our turnaround in 2016.

Would most certainly favour them for promotion over Blackburn, Charlton and Wigan. I'm all for an underdog.

 

Great to see them doing so well. And great for Payne: seems it was the right move for all and now he's proving himself in league football. They only need 20 more points to secure safety!

 

It's refreshing to read some of their fans comments. They're concerned about how the teams immediately below them are getting on, and maintaining the gap at the top. They seem genuinely appreciative that they're over performing this season. This time last year when dem blades were walking league 1, their fans were talking about back to back promotions and getting back to the Premier league as though they'd got some sort of right because they'd been in league 1 for 6 years.

 

Cracking set of fans. Watched loads of Shrewsbury when I was a teenager as lived there & they've always been my second team.

Not sure if they'll keep their blistering start up, probably not, but would be an epic achievement if they were to go up. With teams like Blackburn, Wigan, Bradford and Charlton behind there will be plenty of decent teams fighting to come up.

 

I'm off to watch them v Fleetwood on Oct 21st so will report back. Weekend with some mates there. I used to live there so they're probably my second team.

 

Shrewsbury is a really nice town. Good place to spend a day in. It would be great to see them get up.

 

Personally - and under the circumstances of not having many strikers - although Payne is similar to what we have - I think we should have kept hold of Payne.
He looked very promising up to him getting injured last season.

 

I liked Payne. 9 appearances, no starts wasn't enough to judge a player. People have disagreed but that's just my opinion.

 

But I think the fact that he didn't get any starts suggested he wasn't good enough in the eyes of Hecky - and he's the one who sees the team every day

There isn't enough playing time to give everyone enough game time and it would potentially be to the detriment of the team

Happy he's doing well, though

 

As I say. Just my opinion. Hecky doesn't get everything right and to suggest he does would be naive.

Payne could go on to score 20 goals this season in the lower leagues. Yeah, it's the lower leagues but that's where Bradshaw and Winall caught our eye.

I hope he ends up back in the championship.

 

No he doesn't get everything right but he's got enough right over his time for me to trust his decisions.

For me, Payne is quite a similar player to Thiam; strong and can hold the ball up. They've both had milted appearances for us but on the albeit brief views so far Thiam has been more effective

 

Good lad Payne. Not comparing him with any of the other players. Just my opinion that we left ourselves short by letting him go.

Yes I know someone is going to say we missed out on the Swansea lad, but he's very little experience to call on. Could have gone either way that one.

I fancy Payne to score the thick end of 20 goals this season. That's not a bad player at any level.

 

Always remember our first game back in the Second Division after what seemed a half lifetime yo-yo-yoing between the Third and Fourth, and we played the Shrews. A brilliant 4-0 win to kick off our season.

 

Shrewsbury is one of the club's that always stands out in the memory.

Awful record there in the 80s, until we won 3 2 on new years eve, but they didn't travel well either, and we did well against them at Oakwell.

Broke down en route and got in just before half time for one game.

Used to play their supporters club at footy.

We reckoned they did the best meat pies of all the grounds we visited.

The bloke with the coracle who went in to fetch the ball when it went in the river.

All 30ish years ago now. Really makes me feel old