An initial brush with reality.

2 August 2025: Shrewsbury Town 0, Bromley 0.

Shrewsbury: Savin; Boyle [Y]; Anderson [Y]; Stubbs; Nurse; Clucas [Y]; Gilliead (Perry 67’); Biggins (Sang 84’); Hoole; Scully (Lloyd 74’); Marquis.

Unused substitutes: Benning; Dinanga; Nsiala; Stewart.

Bromley: Smith; Cameron; Webster; Elerewe [Y]; Pinnock; Charles; Thompson (Krauhaus 65’); Ifill (Odutayo 73’); Whitely (Arthurs 83’); Dinanga (Kabamba 73’); Cheek.

Unused substitutes: Hondermarck; Long; Sowunmi.

Match officials: Referee – Mr Z Kennard-Kettle; Assistants – Mr S Chalkley & Mr J Tewson (Mr N Felton)

Attendance: 5,809

Somewhere, some executive in the sports-broadcasting complex decided to schedule the opening of the League One and League Two seasons a week early, presumably to showcase the two Cinderellas of the EFL. Consequently, I had to haul myself down to Croud Meadow when all my instincts were yelling at me that an afternoon at home watching what looked to be the pivotal day in the final Test Match would be much more fulfilling and rewarding.

An added absurdity to the early start was that I returned home the Saturday morning after a week in Cheltenham watching the Glorious Glosters playing Middlesex at the annual cricket festival. During the final session after tea on the Friday, I had the sobering thought that twenty-four hence I would be watching the current iteration of Super Salop playing out its first league fixture of the season. Turning to a club member sitting a few seats away, who is a Bristol Rovers fan, I said: “Well, this time tomorrow your boys will be 3-0 up”. To this my acquaintance spluttered something inaudible.

From the above it should be possible to deduce that I was not particularly looking forward to the resumption of league hostilities. There again, I never do. For me preseason is a chore that to be endured whilst there are many other things around to enjoy. This is the case whether I am optimistic about Salop’s prospects, or pessimistic. Oscar Wilde said that the trouble with socialism was that it took up too much of your evenings; football is similar – the problem is it takes up too much of your emotional bandwidth.

To mark the occasion of the start of eight – or if we are lucky nine – months of league football Shrewsbury Town and Bromley, aided by the match officials, duly obliged by putting on 115 minutes of entertainment that would have underwhelmed even a spectator with no expectations. Not only was it not worth going to see, but it was also not worth seeing. That the match generated a mere four pages of random scribblings in my notebook is an eloquent telling of the tale

An understandably cagy start was briefly enlivened by Bromley’s Ben Thompson flicking the ball into the Town net from an offside position. Que wild celebrations from the visiting supporters housed in the far block of the SY-Comms Stand, including the setting off a flare with smoke of a blackness not seen in Shrewsbury since the occasion of the fires that engulfed the warehouses of COD Donnington back in the days when Salop graced the Second Division. The Bromley supporters reluctantly came to terms with the reality of the goal having been disallowed; little did they know at the time that this would prove to be the highlight of their afternoon in Shropshire.

Midway through the first half play was halted by the referee, Mr Zac Kennard-Kettle a chip off the old Trevor Kettle block, ostensively to allow a refreshment break. However, as the interruption in play lengthened it became apparent that that something was amiss. An indication of what this was, emerged when Ryan Jervis made an appeal over the public address not whether there was doctor in the house, but a qualified level five referee. One of the referee’s assistants had been taken ill and was unable to assume the duties of the fourth official, so a qualified volunteer was needed to take up this role for the game to continue. Given the number of spectators in the West Stand that pontificate about refereeing decisions with an air of authority, it was somewhat surprising that there was not a rush of hundreds from this stand offering their services.

A suitably qualified volunteer came forward so to allow the match to restart, but only after play had been suspended for seventeen minutes – an interruption that probably fractured the game’s natural momentum beyond repair. The problem was that the natural momentum of this game was not up to much anyway, so both teams struggled take any control of the match with the thing that was most likely to break the stalemate being a defensive error. Fortunately for Salop, the newly acquired central defensive trio went about their business efficiently and Bromley’s forwards were not creating enough chances to suggest a goal was imminent.

As for Salop’s attacking play, it was evident that they were attempting to play the ball through the thirds, but the results were variable. There were instances when the ball was moved round with some creativity, but too many of these fizzled out in the final third with a poor delivery. Like the visitors, the home side failure’s failure to score was a failure to create sufficient clear cut scoring chances. On seventy-five minutes the club had arranged for a minute’s applause for the late Town legend Chic Bates. When this moment arrived, Salop were enjoying some dominance and the more romantic of us hoped the current Town team would score one for Chic. It was not to be, while Salop forced a couple of corners, they were unable to convert one into a goal.

That this game finished goalless would not surprise anyone that sat through it. From a Salop perspective there are one or two things still to ponder. It is reasonable to expect that the defence will be more solid than last season, but does the team have the capacity to score enough goals to have a chance of winning matches. Playing three central defenders in an attacking formation relies on the wing backs being an attacking force rather than being compressed into a back five. Yesterday, Luca Hoole had a good game on the right flank while George Nurse was less convincing on the left.

In midfield Harrison Biggins looked more comfortable in a League Two habitat, displaying sufficient confidence to try a few deft touches on the ball. Sam Clucas put in the impressive performance most would expect from a player of his skill and experience. With Elyh Harrison unfit Toby Savin was in goal, betraying the nervousness of a rabbit caught in car headlights. It is not clear when Savin learned he would be starting, which might have been a factor in his readiness to play, but having endured a torrid time at the hands of some Town fans it is hardly surprising he might be full of nerves.

At the risk of being cancelled due to being a happy-clappy Town fan that is prepared to put up with mediocrity, I probably share Michael Appleton’s satisfaction with Salop’s opening day performance. As the first of the dozen or so matches that need to be played before we have the reality of a meaningful league table, it might have been a disappointment, but it was not a disaster. The head coach often refers to his main objective being for the team to outperform the club’s playing budget. That entails several individual players performing above expectations. To be fair, given Salop has not been able to turnover much of the squad from last season there is no shortage of players of whom we have low expectations, but it is debateable that this might be is a good thing.

Whether this team was performing 25% below its capabilities, as Appleton suggested yesterday, will become apparent over the coming days and weeks of August and September. It is never a good idea to read too much into the opening game, a thought that will be worth sharing with any Bristol Rovers/Gloucestershire supporters you may know. The Pirates are rated as having everything required to mount a promotion challenge yet lost at home to Harrogate Town in their opening fixture. Ouch!