Well, well, well. Win, win, win. Grin, grin, grin. A strong team performance at Montgomery Waters Meadows saw Ben Garner and his team win for the first time on our travels this season and, somehow, slide into 7th (seventh) in the table.
Nine from nine built on a back four of Sessegnon, O'Connell, Inniss and Egbo. The four man midfield looks better as does two up front, even if they are Stockley plus anyone else. Not to denigrate the full debut of Tyreece Campbell. "Tupac" earned his money and deserves another go after proving a handful for the Shrews defence. Marosi in the home goal denied him twice with good saves.
The game was open in the first half. Shrewsbury missed two sitters early on from good crosses and Rak-Sakyi fluffled two great chances as the Addicks pressed. Dobson was outstanding once again mopping up and keeping the kettle boiling - he is already a strong contender for Player-of-the-Season again if he keeps this up. Stockley missed a back-post chance he would have buried last season and as the whistle went you felt we might pay in the second-half for our misses.
When Rak-Sakyi missed an even easier opportunity after the restart I called for Payne to replace him but knew the debutant Campbell would make way. I should also have known that Rak-Sakyi would make amends and he did after 67 minutes when he finished off a cut-back from Jack Payne from six yards out.
After that Garner used his substitutions well and we managed the game nicely and limited the Shrews as they desperately sought another late goal against us after one in each of the last two visits. Chuks Aneke even managed a blistering shot on the charge which Marosi did very well to keep out at his near post.
If I am being critical, and I am, I thought Sessegnon was caught in possession too often going forward and I honestly didn't see anything of Kirk bar another failure to get an attempt in on goal when he had a decent chance second-half. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention because I got a stat-based Tweet later saying Kirk had set-up five goal-scoring chances - really? Fraser had a better second-half but he was anonymous in the first. Inniss did well to survive a second booking for 80 minutes and O'Connell once again showed what Garner has seen in him. Finally, Joe Wollacott deserves a shout out for two excellent saves which we have almost come to expect from him.
The mood in the camp must be good and on Tuesday we face bottom-of-the-table MK Dons at home in what should be a romp. Ipswich will provide stiffer opposition next Saturday, again at the Valley, but we have performed well against all the better sides so far. It would have been a great time to drop the prices and encourage a couple of thousand fans to return but I am guessing Sandgaard will stubbornly stick with his £4 off deal and that sales-prevention, £3 Meire Tax which continues to rub salt in the wounds. I received a message from the club yesterday reminding me of the new pricing which unhelpfully points out again that it's only until New Year. When will the wooden tops doing this realise that this is a sales message and no-one is going to decide to come now just because it will be more expensive after Christmas, so why threaten it?
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