The Salop Diaries

We live in the age of the extreme. The political sphere is split between left and right, and the poisonous rhetoric from both sides spills over into every facet of life – even the world of sport, as the recent World Cup bore testimony. Little old Shrewsbury Town is not exempt from this trend. Complain about the club’s malaise of recent years and you are labelled a “doom monger”. Dare to express any kind of positivity and there are plenty ready to point and call you a “happy clapper”. Yet, as we prepare to enter the 2026/27 campaign, I find myself reflecting on a phrase oft repeated by one of my Salopcast co-hosts, Ollie Warner, who likes to say that two things can be true at the same time. It is true, certainly, that Shrewsbury Town is a football club that has been on a downward trajectory over the past five years or so. I share the frustration of every supporter who wants to see new investment and new ideas come into the club and give us a fighting chance of competing in an age when m...

The events of the past two weeks have put a spring in my step. With five glorious victories in a row, Shrewsbury Town are a team reborn under Gavin Cowan. Suddenly, going to football is fun once again, and life is just that little bit brighter. In trying to make sense of it all, I find myself looking to history to see when we have previously enjoyed such a reversal of fortunes. I had to dig a long way back in my memory banks: allow me to transport you briefly to the spring of 1991. On the morning of 20 April that year, Shrewsbury sat third bottom of the Third Division (now League 1), six points from safety with just seven games to go. A second relegation in three seasons looked inevitable. That afternoon, Town would beat near neighbours Chester City 1-0. It proved the catalyst for a remarkable run of six wins in the last seven games. We finished 18 th , securing safety with a game to spare. We even went on to ruin the play-off hopes of Bournemouth – then under leadership of up-and-comi...

January has been and gone – and for everyone connected to Shrewsbury Town, it was anything but quiet. I don’t know about you, but I think I need to go and sit in a dark room for a few days just to recover! So where to start? Well, let’s look at some of the key numbers. 1 – the number of wins we managed all month. The solitary success coming against fellow strugglers Harrogate. (Four defeats, by the way, including a 3-0 drubbing at home to Bristol Rovers and a 6-1 thrashing at Wolves in the FA Cup). 2 – the number of ‘Head Coaches’ we employed, with Michael Appleton getting the heave-ho on Wednesday last week, and Gavin Cowan appointed less than 17 hours later. 5 – the number of players to leave the club during January. Elyh Harrison returned to Manchester United, George Nurse moved to Cheltenham. Harrison Biggins was loaned to Newport County (because hey, why not help out a relegation rival?!), Alex Gilliead saw his loan at Carlisle extended to the end of the season, and Chuks An...