Shrewsbury Town 1 v Charlton Athletic 0

For the thousand Charlton supporters who made the journey, this game will live longer in the memory than those of us who didn't. Storm Arwen swept down from the north overnight and brought widespread travel disruption. That included a direct tree hit on the Birmingham-Shrewsbury line which left many fans scambling for expensive 30+ mile taxi rides to make kick-off. Sadly, they weren't rewarded with victory. 

On paper we looked slightly stronger than on Wednesday night with the return from suspension of Akin Famewo to defence. Blackett-Taylor was given a start ahead of Jayesimi who I assume was being rested, although he was brought on towards the end.

Shrews boss Steve Cotterill had clearly done his homework and his side started the match strongly and put us under pressure for the opening 25 minutes without making the breakthrough. Unable to sustain it, we gradually found more time and space in midfield and the game shifted towards the other end where, we too, couldn't find a scoring opportunity. Once again we were labouring upfront. Davison and Washington were hard to find and neither had any aerial presence. We weren't finding much width and it didn't improve in the second half.

Shortly after the restart, impressive 18 year old Tom Bloxham should have opened the scoring for Salop with a fierce snap-shot to the top corner from inside the box, but somehow MacGillivray managed to get a hand to it and keep it out. We heeded the warning and our defence redoubled efforts to keep the home side at bay. Unfortunately, we were looking leggy in midfield and our forays into opposition territory often ran out-of-steam. Clare and Blackett-Taylor were pushing down the right but struggling to find the front men. Blackett-Taylor again failed to show us the pace that was taking him beyond full-backs with ease earlier in the season. Our threat down the left was poorer. The Soare-Purrington combo wasn't firing, largely because Soare had an absolute stinker. He has yet to show us any consistent form indicative of his CV.

We did fashion two decent scoring opportunities, through Gilbey and Lee. Gilbey arrived in the box to meet a cross but he still had a bit to do and his onward header didn't have enough pace or direction to beat Marosi in the home goal. Elliott Lee's drive effort was better but Marosi got behind that too. Jonathan Leko came on towards the end but couldn't change the rhythm of the game. Likewise Jayesimi for Blackett-Taylor. I think we really needed to see Burstow or Leko for Davison and much earlier once again than we did.

As the game wore on we were doing as much as they were to get the goal but neither side looked likely until 93rd minute when a heavily defended ball in was headed out but quickly played back in low to Udoh in space and his low shot squirmed beyond MacGillivray who got down very quickly and managed a touch but not enough to prevent the goal. Jason Euell was booked soon after the whistle for remonstrating with the ref for what looked like an obvious foul in the build-up to the goal but the match had been lost.

We didn't do enough to win the game and despite 62% possession and 11 corners to their 4, the match felt more even to watch. It was short of goal-scoring opportunities at both ends and for that we can have few complaints. Stockley will be back next week but for how long? We simply have to sign another goal-scorer in January if we are to have any chance of making the play-offs. Relying on one dedicated centre-forward from the start of the season was negligent.

I felt for the supporters suffering in the cold when the Met Police tweeted a message telling the train travellers that they needed to leg-it after the match to make the only two scheduled trains back to the Smoke. I hope they all made it.