First half wasn't pretty with us being forced into long balls up to Fletcher who had no chance. But to be fair Shrewsbury barely had a chance of their own. Songo'o should have scored and Sarcevic could have as well.
Minutes 45-60 were dominated by us, Carey scored a worldy and we looked set for a deserved win.
The sub from Adams completely cost us the game. Full credit to him for how we more than matched the undefeated league leaders for an hour, but it was a dreadful decision to go 5-4-1 and leave Jervis on his own up front. The ball did not stick and we invited so much pressure onto us. We weren't closing down their wide men and full backs, which was ok as they weren't looking to put crosses into the box (until John-Lewis came on anyway), but in central areas we stood off them way way too much. Even in League 2 we saw that if you give players room to turn, drive and shoot from 20-25 yards out, they'll punish you - in League 1 it's happening even more often. Even if we're sitting on a one goal lead, the midfield MUST get out and press the ball more. But Adams doesn't seem to want to do that.
Another thing is that a clear tactic in the first half (especially when Letheren had the ball) was to clear it out to Carey, as their left-back was miniscule and even Carey had a decent height advantage on him. It didn't really work much, but if that was a weak area identified by Adams, then why on earth did we not play Jervis there who is basically made for a wide target man role?! And within 15 minutes of coming on, Jervis had gone centrally and won nothing against their two giants at centre-half?? It just makes no sense.
Last 15 was better again with us actively looking to hoof it more, Blissett winning the flicks and Jervis trying to play off that. Sadly, Jervis had one good sight of goal plus one half-chance - he fluffed both.
I'm not Adams out at this moment in time, but I'd be astounded if Adams is really getting everything out of this group of players. He managed it with last year's group, but why can't he with this? He made the occasional weird decision last season like playing Goodwillie up front on his own, but mostly he seemed to tactically outwit opposition managers. This season he's making some tactical blunders and it's costing us points.
Letheren 8 - Don't think he could have saved their goal, made some good saves and his command was very impressive.
Sawyer 7 - Skinned 3 times in the first 10 minutes but really excelled after that. Played quite narrow at times which wasn't too bad as like I said, Shrews weren't really interested in crossing the ball, they wanted to work it through the middle.
Songo'o 9 MOTM - if he'd buried that free header and hadn't shanked that easy clearance out of play just before half time, it probably would have been a 10.
Edwards 8 - I'm impressed with him. Looks good enough for this level.
ATS 6 - Passing woeful in the first 30 but settled down after that and defensively he did reasonably well. I'm not getting out the bunting just yet but he looked better than I feared having watched the Bristol City game.
Fox 7 - He's similar to Ness but better - the perfect cover for a defence in a 3-man midfield (if the other two would actually push out and press more), and used the ball well.
Diagouraga 7 - Encouraging on the whole. Slow start but really started to boss the game later on.
Sarcevic 7 - Missed a good chance but again was good with the ball and put a few crunching tackles in.
Carey 7 - First 20 minutes he was properly bad. Gave the ball away a lot and didn't help Sawyer enough. But his set piece delivery was excellent this week and in the 2nd half he started to play like the Carey we're used to. And, just... what a goal.
Fletcher 6 - Ran and ran and ran. Touch let him down at times and his link up play was hot and cold. Can't be blamed for not winning many headers at all against the massive centre-halves he was up against.
Grant 6 - Meh. Seen him have better games. Tried to do the right things but not a lot of what he tried actually came off.
Subs:
Jervis 5 - Should have scored.
Bradley 7 - Contributed to our last line of defence.
Blissett 7 - Won his fair share up top.
Shrewsbury really weren't all that. Full credit to their manager as their team looks weak on paper for this level, and that's how the played today. We should have won that match. Must, must must start winning soon otherwise we have to start handing a P45 or two out. As promising as some of our spells in games have been, we are on 6 points from 13 games. We have not won in 10, getting just two points in that time and as many red cards as goals. Jervis and Carey are our joint top scorers with 2. This situation cannot continue.
