[SHEP_HTAFC]

SHREWSBURY TOWN v HUDDERSFIELD TOWN......TUE 9th AUG.....K.O 19:45

SUMMER CHANGES

Huddersfield Town signed 12 first team players in the close season. The list below shows who has come in:-

Danny Ward - GK - (season long loan)
Joel Coleman - GK - (undisclosed fee)
Chris Lowe - DF - (free)
Christopher Schindler - DF - £1.8M (approx.)
Jon Gorenc Stankovic - DF - (undisclosed fee)
Michael Hefele - DF - (free)
Aaron Mooy - MF - (season long loan)
Ivan Paurevic - MF - (undisclosed fee)
Jack Payne - MF/F - (free/compensation)
Kasey Palmer - MF/F - (season long loan)
Rajiv van la Parra - Wing - (undisclosed fee)
Elias Kachunga - F - (season long loan)

We transferred 3 players out of the club.
Jordy Hiwula - Bradford - (season long loan)
Duane Holmes - Scunny - (free)
Joel 'Bet' Lynch - QPR - (£1M approx)

Will it take a long time for so many new players to gel together as a team/squad? I think we shouldn't be too hopeful that we will start like a train in this new season.
We had a fantastic start v Brentford on Saturday, certainly better than the last game of the season last year. A great 2-1 win, dominating the game, and loads more chances than them. One of our first big tests comes this weekend with our away game to pre-season favourites Newcastle.
I have high hopes for this squad as a whole though, and where better to show our much improved strength in depth than in this game. Give some of the other players a run out and see what they can do.
This will be the first time we will wear our new away kit - the Wilson kit. In celebration of our old player Ray Wilson, who won the World Cup with England back in 1966. Cracking looking kit in my opinion.




Shrewsbury have signed at least 7 players for the new season. I don't think I can be bothered to find out anything about them.

OUR OPPONENTS

We are playing for the first time ever at Shrewsbury's new stadium....New Meadow (or Greenhous Meadow). It was built in 2007. It has a capacity just short of 10K.
They had played for 97 years at Gay Meadow....a very appropriate name for a stadium within spitting distance of Wales.

We have played Shrewsbury 20 times in our history.....Town have won 8 and Shrews 7....with 5 draws.
This is the first time we have ever played each other in any cup competition.

Shrewsbury were founded in 1886, however they were not elected to the Football League until 1950-51. Apart from 10 years spent in the old second division in 1979-1989 they have played nearly all their league games in the bottom two divisions. They did spend one year in the conference in 2003-4.
They have also competed in the Welsh Cup, winning it six times, a record for an English team.

They currently play in League 1 after promotion the previous year. Their first season in League 1 had them finishing in 20th place, one spot above the relegation places..
Their manager is Micky Mellon.

On Saturday, their first league game, they lost 1-0 at home to MK Dons.

FAMILIAR NAMES

I could hardly find anyone that has links to both clubs....but after extensive research (10 minutes in Wikipedia) I did find a couple.

Leslie Knighton was caretaker manager at Huddersfield from 1912-1919 (eventually replaced by Herbert Chapman)....and was then manager at Shrewsbury from 1945-1948.
He was also manager of Chelsea and Arsenal (replaced by Herbert Chapman).

The other is Keith Southern. He was on loan at Shrewsbury from Fleetwood last year, playing 6 times.


Any others?

TOWN TEAM

With so many new signings, and having only played one league game, it is difficult to see what Wagners team will be.
However as it is only the league cup, there will probably be lots of changes from the league match.

WARD

SMITH  HEFELE  STANKOVIC  DAVIDSON

LOLLEY  WHITEHEAD  PAUREVIC  MOOY  DEMPSEY  

KACHUNGA