Shrewsbury Town

Shrewsbury Town do not, in fact, have anything to do with Petrucchio, whatever cliché-ridden headlines about them being tamed may have you believe. Although it's possible that William Shakespeare may have visited Shrewsbury, and even had the town in mind when writing the Taming of the Shrew, we consider it unlikely. In addition, the Shrews have never been managed by Brian Hortensio.

Now that rubbish is out of the way, we can report that Shrewsbury Town were formed in 1886 and played for some time in the Shropshire & District Birmingham League and then the Midland League, playing initially at at Sutton Lane and then at Copthorne until moving to Gay Meadow in 1910. Shrewsbury were elected to the Football League in 1950, playing in Division Three North for one season before being switched to the Southern section where they spent the next seven seasons before joining the new Fourth Division in 1958. They won promotion in the first season as runners-up and remained in Division Three until 1974, when they were relegated to the Fourth Division, where they spent just one season before coming second to go back up. Shrewsbury won the Third Division in 1979 to go up to Division Two.

Although Shrewsbury rarely troubled the promotion places, they remained in the Second Division until 1989 before succumbing to relegation. In 1992 the Shrews finished third from bottom to suffer relegation to the basement, but they returned as champions two seasons later. In 1997 they were relegated again and in 2003 they ended bottom of the Football League and dropped into the Conference. A fate that we know all too well.

Their tenure in non-league lasted for just one season as they finished third and went on to beat Aldershot Town in the play-offs, winning a penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw. In 2007 they reached the Fourth Division play-offs, but were beaten 3-1 by Bristol Rovers in the final at Wembley. They reached the play-off final again in 2009, losing 1-0 to Gillingham this time, and last season Shrewsbury finished 12th.

Shrewsbury moved from Gay Meadow in 2007, their new ground being renamed the Greenhous Meadow this summer (and no, that's not a typo). The ground has an all-seated capacity of 9,875 with away fans housed in the North Stand. Ticket prices last season were £18 for adults (£16 if purchased in advance), £13 for over-65s, students, and disabled supporters (£11), £11 for 12-16 year olds (£9), and £5 for under-11s (£3). Shrewsbury is a fuel-tank busting 122 miles from Oxford. They visit us on 18 December, while we travel themwards for the last regular match of the season on 7 May 2011.

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The Us and the Shrews have crossed swords 34 times in the past, most recently in January 2006, when United were thrashed 3-0 at the Kas. The most significant game was on 24 April 1985, when David Langan's goal earned United promotion to the top flight for the first time. Oxford have never lost a cup game to Shrewsbury.

Of those who have turned out for both clubs, the stand out player is of course James Constable, who joined United from the Shrews initially on loan in 2008, signing permanently at the start of last season, and scoring 26 goals in each season at the Kas. Another notable goalscorer to have donned both shirts is Lee Steele, while Steve Anthrobus allegedly wasn't too bad for Shrewsbury, if you can believe that. Perhaps the single most prominent connection though is Maurice Evans, who was boss of Shrewsbury between 1972 and 1974, after which he went to Reading before succeeding Jim Smith as Oxford's boss in the First Division.[@opponent]shrewsbury town[/@opponent] [@connection]shrewsbury town/@connection] [@manager]evans, maurice[/@manager]