Shrewsbury Town 23/24 season review: The strikers
Jonny Drury and Ollie Westbury bring you the Salop season review.
In the final video they discuss the strikers, and who has stood out up top.
They talk Dan Udoh and his future, the players leaving the ones who could impress next season.
In the final video they discuss the strikers, and who has stood out up top.
They talk Dan Udoh and his future, the players leaving the ones who could impress next season.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Ready boy? Right. 3, 2, 1.
00:05 Hello Sard fans and welcome back to shopstar.com for our Shrewsbury Town end of season reviews.
00:11 In our final video here we're going to talk about the forwards.
00:15 Now Ollie, we've had numerous chats about Shrewsbury finding it difficult, certainly in the early part of the season, to find the net.
00:22 But there's been one man who's stood out above the rest and like we've talked about in these previous videos, his future is up in the air.
00:31 And just as a disclaimer, these videos are going out probably about 4 or 5 days after we've recorded them so hopefully nothing's changed.
00:38 But Dan Udo, someone who has probably fallen in love with Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury fans have fallen in love with him.
00:45 Everyone speaks so glowingly about him and again he has been so key this season.
00:50 In the front line that's struggled, well collectively, to hit big numbers, he's hit big numbers again.
00:56 Yeah, Dan Udo has been pretty good for Shrewsbury.
01:01 On the back of an ACL injury in the summer, he didn't play as many games as he did and he got better and better and better as the season went on,
01:08 especially under Paul Hurst. When Paul Hurst came in he just looked a different player.
01:12 He scored seven goals since Paul Hurst's arrival. He just had more chances, got in attacking areas and earlier on in the season he wasn't necessarily missing chances, he just wasn't really having them.
01:23 So a fantastic season for Dan Udo, another player out of contract.
01:27 Obviously there's been discussions going on for a long time with the club, with Dan, who's caught, who's going to blink first.
01:36 Probably still a little bit early at the moment but I think it shows they should be trying to keep Dan Udo.
01:42 It's hard, as you've seen, with players trying to bring in forwards that are going to come in and score you the goals that you need.
01:49 And having somebody like Dan Udo already here, I know he's not already here anymore because his contract's up, but he's still a valid and important player.
01:58 It seems with the other ones, I just want to focus in a bit on Max Mata, someone who came in for a fee last summer from Sligo Rovers in Ireland.
02:06 Never really happened for him, obviously he spent the latter part of the season back on loan with Sligo.
02:11 How, obviously still under contract as well, someone who's usually paid money on.
02:16 One of the few players that came from Ireland and obviously that was criticised from some quarters.
02:21 How do you see it playing out for him now? Is he a player who's just going to go out on loan or given the fact that he is under contract, does he remain with the club?
02:30 I'm not sure. It'll be Paul Hurst's decision on it.
02:33 Would it surprise you given the finances of the club?
02:36 No, I don't think it will surprise me.
02:38 He goes out on loan from what I saw last season. It didn't work, did it? So it'll depend on Paul Hurst, whether he looks at him and thinks that he can make an impact or not.
02:52 Just looking at some of the players who've released, departed towards the end of the season.
02:57 Obviously Ryan Bowman, who's had a few seasons here at Shrewsbury, never been really prolific.
03:02 Works hard, done well. Again, we spoke about natural progression in terms of players that have left the club. Is he another one that...
03:08 Yeah, I think so. I think Bowman's...
03:12 Yeah, I mean, they extended his contract when they had an option of it last summer.
03:18 I was perhaps surprised to see them do that then. Matt Taylor made him vice-captain, didn't he, in the summer.
03:24 I think, yeah, he's got a goal-scoring knack and he finds himself in school at Hattrick, doesn't he, away at Knox County.
03:32 And he's got a goal-scoring knack, but I suppose it's perhaps what he offers to the team outside of that in terms of link-up play and hold-up play.
03:40 A phenomenal athlete and he's brilliant in the dressing room.
03:44 But probably, I think for all parties, I think Bowman had probably been a pinnacle of that and was probably best because of the right call he made to go in a certain place and not offer him the lead there.
03:58 Yeah, other ones? Aiden O'Brien, somebody come back into the club. Strange, strange, a real strange kind of scenario for Aiden O'Brien.
04:05 Came in with high hopes, didn't he?
04:07 He was on a steep cobb trail, shipped out on loan in January, to Chillingham he went to at first, and then came back.
04:15 Apparently he was training really well, but shipped out again to Sutton for the first part of the season.
04:20 And then obviously Paul Hurst took quite a bit of a liking to him and kept him around and put him in the squad a couple of starts.
04:26 Clearly got ability and a really, really nice chap, actually.
04:31 Somebody that I felt is a little bit misunderstood from a Shrewsbury perspective.
04:37 Probably not worked out for him, he was openly admitted that it hadn't worked out for him in his time in Shropshire.
04:42 And yeah, another one that's probably just best if they kind of go their separate ways and make some move.
04:48 Try to find a fresh start somewhere else, probably down south, if you don't expect it.
04:52 So that's where he's found him.
04:53 Rayon Tullock, somebody come in, another one on a short-term deal. Never happened, really.
04:57 No, never happened. Shrewsbury had a bigger squad, but didn't have anywhere near as many injury issues at the end of the season as they did at the start.
05:05 And he just couldn't really get himself in the matchday 18.
05:08 I don't understand why they perhaps signed him after a successful trial period, a contract he could have been earlier on for a lot of money.
05:14 But yeah, contract terminated, he was West Brom, wasn't it, earlier in the season.
05:18 And he came to Shrewsbury but never really managed to make quite an impact.
05:22 And then finally, we'll finish on Tom Bloxham, someone who has for a few years now been sort of the rising star, the one that everyone's expected to explode.
05:32 And there has been moments where he's had sort of good little spells this season, but have you reflected on him and how do you see his future panning out?
05:39 I expect him to be pretty much a first-team staple next year, to be fair.
05:43 I would have thought he'd be heavily involved, a young player at the club, clearly talented.
05:48 I thought he made a really good positive impact when he came back. I thought he linked up really nicely towards the end of the season with Dan Udov.
05:55 So, from my perspective, I was pretty impressed and perhaps partly surprised to see him go out on loan.
06:02 Because he made a real impact when he came back, came back there straight into the start in '11.
06:07 And I think he did really well and I'm hoping that we can see him play more going forward.
06:12 That was it. That will do them.