Shrewsbury Town

Town: Joe Anyon, Jermaine Grandison, Rob Purdie, Asa Hall, Darren Jones, Michael Hector, Jon Taylor, Matt Richards, Terry Gornell, Ryan Doble, Mark Wright

Subs: Connor Goldson, Joe Jacobson, Aaron Wildig, Paul Parry, Luke Summerfield, Marvin Morgan, Tom Bradshaw, Ryan Woods, Elliot Turner, Chris Weale

Leicester City: Kasper Schmeichel, Ritchie De Laet, Paul Konchesky, Wes Morgan, Liam Moore, Ben Marshall, Matty James, Marko Futacs, David Nugent, Lloyd Dyer, Neil Danns

Subs: Danny Drinkwater, Sean St. Ledger, Conrad Logan, Martyn Waghorn, Tom Parkes, Tom Kennedy, Paul Gallagher, Jeff Schlupp, Andy King, Jamie Vardy, Lee Peltier, Tom Hopper

Referee: Mr. C. Sargeson

Assistants: Mr. R. Lewis & Mr. D. Johnson

Fourth Official: Mr. M. Myatt

Attendance: 1,800 (493 visiting fans)

Town name a 21 man squad for this second home friendly against Championship opposition in five days. It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon at the Greenhous Meadow with the league season now just three weeks away.

With Leicester sporting their usual favours of all blue, it gives Shrewsbury fans their first chance to see the brand new white away kit which will be available from next Sunday at the club’s open day.

Leicester had three decent chances inside the first five minutes. The first of them came when Jermaine Grandison’s back pass fell well short and let in Lloyd Dyer stood completely alone down the left channel. But the winger looked so surprised that he didn’t have a clue what to do with the ball and promptly passed it straight to a grateful Darren Jones. David Nugent then twice failed to test Joe Anyon in the home goal with opportunities he’d expect to do better with once the real action gets underway in the Championship.

Town’s first sight of goal saw summer recruit Asa Hall chest the ball down and send away a left footed effort from all of 25 yards which wasn’t that far away from finding the corner of Kasper Schmeichel’s goal.

Although played at a leisurely pace – isn’t that what friendlies are all about? – there had been some decent action in the opening stages for the sparsely populated crowd. 

Midway through the half Shrews went in front with a lovely goal. Mark Wright started the move off sending a long raking ball into the path of Terry Gornell. He held the ball up well after showing neat control on his chest and bringing both Grandison and Jon Taylor into play before taking up a good position outside the box and central to goal. Gornell took aim from 25 yards and saw his sweetly struck left foot shot go past Schmeichel’s outstretched left hand and into the bottom corner of the net. 

Moments later Ryan Doble’s header from a Matt Richards free-kick went narrowly wide as Town continued to show up well against Nigel Pearson’s side.  

But they had a great chance to equalise ten minutes before the break when Dyer laid a perfect pass in to Matty James who promptly tripped over his bootlaces and was left red faced six yards from goal.

They were nearly made to pay when Schmeichel uncharacteristically flapped at a Taylor cross and Hall’s effort from the rebound was well cleared by Ritchie De Laet stood on his own goal line.

It was an entertaining contest as the half drew towards its close and Anyon made up for a poor throw out by denying Dyer, moments after he had found the side netting as The Foxes looked to strike back.

At the interval Graham Turner sent on Luke Summerfield for Richards, Aaron Wildig for Taylor and Marvin Morgan for Doble. City also made changes with several more expected during the second 45. There was another change with the bright blue skies being replaced by wall-to-wall clouds and those that came out in shirt sleeves might have been regretting leaving the warmer clothing behind.

Jeff Schlupp was soon forcing Anyon into a smart early save low down to his left after making room for himself on the edge of the area.

There were a couple of further scares for Salop with Andy King denied by Anyon’s legs when he looked set to level from Nugent’s slide rule pass, and then a misunderstanding between the keeper and Jones saw Dyer’s harmless looking low cross almost embarrass the pair as their lack of communication would have been punished had a Leicester man gambled.

It was all Leicester and Jamie Vardy was denied by a brave block from Rob Purdie as Town’s lead came under increasing threat.

Remarkably though, the home side went two up after 58 minutes when Purdie’s attempted shot saw Morgan nip across the Leicester back-line to bullet a header into the net from about 15 yards, right in front of a near-500 following from the East Midlands.

Paul Parry replaced Gornell on the hour with City also making another two changes with Pearson still sitting high in the stands – his preferred vantage point since the game got underway. And Parry was soon enough arcing a free-kick just wide with Schmeichel flying across goal to cover.

Joe Jacobson became Turner’s fifth change with 22 minutes left in a like-for-like swap for Purdie and 90 seconds later Jones was withdrawn for Connor Goldson. Pearson by now was prowling his technical area and let’s just say his body language wasn’t that of a happy camper.

Leicester were looking for a way back but Town as a defensive unit were really well organised and there were always plenty of white shirts in front of an increasingly frustrated attack. The supply just wasn’t there either and the second goal looked to have all but nullified the threat that had been so evident in the early throes of the second period.

Tom Bradshaw got the last quarter hour with Hall coming off for a well-earned breather and Ryan Woods quickly followed for Wright in an eighth substitution with only Elliot Turner and Chris Weale still occupying the bench for the hosts. 

Two minutes of stoppage time were indicated with City’s hopes of staving off a surprise defeat done and dusted. They had been beaten by a Town side who had obviously learned their lesson from Tuesday night’s narrow defeat at the hands of Birmingham. Next up are Wolves, who come here on Tuesday for an earlier than usual kick-off time of 7pm.