Shrewsbury Town F.C.

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Shrewsbury Town Football Club is an English football club currently playing in Football League Two, the fourth tier of English football.

The club was promoted in 2004 from the Nationwide Conference (fifth tier). They won promotion back to the Football League at the first attempt, having been relegated from what was then called the Third Division (fourth tier) in 2003.

Their home ground is the Gay Meadow in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, one of the most picturesque grounds in the football league, on the banks of the River Severn and near to the historic town centre. The club are moving to an as-yet unbuilt ground on Oteley Road, provisionally called the New Meadow, which will have a 10,000 all-seater capacity with much more car parking than the current ground.

This 'new' ground has formed the basis of Town's admittance back into the league structure, but the resultant lack of development to the Gay Meadow is causing problems.

Any move would funded by the sale of the Gay Meadow to developers, with the club hoping to move before the start of the 2006/07 season, when the new ground will have two stands and a 5,000 seater capacity.

The reserve squad play matches in the Pontin's Holidays League Division One West.

Their most successful manager was Graham Turner, who took the club into the Second Division as Third Division champions in 1979. They remained at this level for 10 years, and Turner was at the club for the first five years before moving to Aston Villa.

Other significant managers to take charge of the Shrews include John Bond, Fred Davies, Jake King, Kevin Ratcliffe and Jimmy Quinn.

Arthur Rowley, John McGinlay, Gary Megson, Steve Ogrizovic and Mickey Thomas are just some of the many famous names to have pulled on a Shrewsbury shirt.

Contents

1 Milestones
2 Honours
3 Current squad
4 Player Records
5 Former Players
6 External links

Milestones

Shrewsbury Town were elected to the Football League in 1950 following the decision to expand the league from 88 to 92 clubs.

The most successful manager to take charge of Shrewsbury Town is Graham Turner, who won the Third Division championship in 1978-79 - his first season in charge - and took the club into the Second Division for the very first time. They remained there for ten years against all the odds, although Turner departed for Aston Villa in 1984.

Shrewsbury's Second Division life ended at the end of the 1988-89 season after ten years and they slipped into the Third Division, falling through that trap door three years later.

Shrewsbury won the new (fourth tier) Division Three championship under Fred Davies in 1993-94, and remained in Division Two (third tier) for three seasons before slipping back down again at the end of the 1996-97 season - after a drastic loss of form in the final weeks of a season which had begun with a promotion challenge on the cards. They never even gained a playoff place over the next six seasons and were finally relegated to the Conference at the end of the 2002-03 season under the management of Kevin Ratcliffe, just four months after they had achieved a famous 2-1 home win in the FA Cup over Premiership giants Everton which seemed to rule out any lingering fears of relegation.

Shrewsbury regained their league status at the first attempt in 2003-04, winning the Conference playoffs thanks to the efforts of a hardworking side managed by Jimmy Quinn. But Quinn has since made way for Gary Peters, who succeeded in preserving Shrewsbury's league status in the 2004-05 Coca-Cola League Two campaign.

Honours

Welsh Cup winners 1891, 1938, 1977, 1979, 1984, 1985; runners up 1931, 1948, 1980
Football League Third Division (third tier) champions 1979
Football League Third Division (fourth tier) champions 1994
Football League Fourth Division (fourth tier) runners up 1975
Football League Trophy runners up 1996
Midland League champions 1938, 1946, 1948
Birmingham League champions 1923; runners up 1914, 1924, 1937
Nationwide Conference Playoff Winners 2004

Current squad

As of July 7, 2006: | width="1%" | |bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" width="48%"| |}

Player Records

Most league goals in a season
38: Arthur Rowley (1958-59)
Most league goals in total
152: Arthur Rowley (1958-65)
Most league appearances
418: Mickey Brown (1986-91, 1992-94, 1996-2001)

Former Players

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Only players with articles are listed.
See also

External links

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