Shrewsbury Town

Also written as Shrewsbury.

Note on sourcing: shrewsburytown.com returned HTTP 403 to every automated request, as did 11v11.co.uk, so everything below comes from Wikipedia and head-to-head records and transfer fees are largely unavailable.

The club

Shrewsbury Town were founded on 20 May 1886 in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, and are the only Shropshire club ever to have played in the Football League. Since 2007 their home has been the New Meadow, an all-seater ground holding 9,875, built to replace Gay Meadow after 97 years on the banks of the Severn. They are known as the Shrews, and also as Salop or Town, and play in blue with amber, the blue-and-amber stripes of the late 1970s and early 1980s being the strip most associated with the club's best years.

Recent seasons

Shrewsbury spent the first five of the last six seasons in League One and finished in the bottom half every time: 17th in 2020/21 with 54 points, 18th in 2021/22 with 50, then 12th in 2022/23 with 59 points from 17 wins, the best of the run. It fell away sharply after that. They were 19th in 2023/24 with 48 points, then bottom in 2024/25, 24th with 33 points, 8 wins, 9 draws and 29 defeats and 79 goals conceded, going down alongside Crawley Town, Bristol Rovers and Cambridge United. (Wikipedia's club article gives 2020/21 and 2021/22 as 15th and 16th; the divisional tables say 17th and 18th, used here.)

Their first season back in the fourth tier since 2014/15 brought no recovery. In 2025/26 Shrewsbury finished 19th in League Two with 49 points from 13 wins, 10 draws and 23 defeats, scoring 42 and conceding 69. Michael Appleton was dismissed on 28 January 2026 after 43 matches in charge and Gavin Cowan replaced him the following day. Attendances ranged from 7,879 against Walsall down to 4,116 against Barrow. They are in League Two again for 2026/27.

Honours and landmarks

Shrewsbury have won two Football League titles, the Third Division in 1978/79 and the Fourth Division in 1993/94, and were fourth-tier runners-up in 1974/75, 2011/12 and 2014/15. They won the Conference play-off in 2004 to return to the League at the first attempt. As an English club long admitted to the Welsh competition, they won the Welsh Cup six times, in 1890/91, 1937/38, 1976/77, 1978/79, 1983/84 and 1984/85, and they have won the Shropshire Senior Cup 67 times. They were Football League Trophy runners-up in 1995/96 and 2017/18 and have lost three play-off finals, in 2007, 2009 and 2018.

Record attendance is 61,589 against Bristol Rovers at Wembley in the 2007 play-off final. At Gay Meadow the record was 18,917 against Walsall on 26 April 1961; at the New Meadow it is 10,210 against Chelsea in the League Cup fourth round on 28 October 2014. Arthur Rowley scored 152 league goals for the club, 38 of them in 1958/59. Mickey Brown made 418 league appearances and Colin Griffin 497 in all competitions.

Notable scorelines

Record victory: 21-0 against Mold Alyn Stars in the Welsh FA Cup first round on 27 October 1894. Record defeat: 0-13 against Small Heath in the Birmingham League on 25 December 1895. Both long predate the club's Football League era.

The deepest cup run remains the League Cup semi-final of 1960/61, reached after beating Everton and lost 4-3 on aggregate to Rotherham United. They reached the FA Cup quarter-finals in 1978/79, beating Manchester City 2-0 on the way, and again in 1981/82, knocking out the UEFA Cup holders Ipswich Town before losing 5-2 to Leicester City. In 2002/03 they beat Everton 2-1 at Gay Meadow, Nigel Jemson scoring twice. The most recent famous night was the FA Cup fourth round of 2019/20, a 2-2 draw with the European champions Liverpool after trailing 2-0; they lost the replay 1-0 at Anfield in front of 52,399.

Head-to-head notes

No published all-time head-to-head record could be established against any 2026/27 opponent. What is on record is last season, when Shrewsbury shared League Two with fourteen of them. Tranmere Rovers, who provide the opening league fixture, beat them 4-0 at Prenton Park on 9 August 2025. Salford City, the EFL Cup first-round opponents, won 3-1 at the New Meadow on 13 September 2025. Shrewsbury beat Barnet 3-1 away on 6 September 2025, Crawley Town 1-0 at home on 18 October and Newport County 1-0 at home on 15 November. They lost at home to Colchester United and Chesterfield and away to Swindon Town, Crewe Alexandra, Fleetwood Town and Cheltenham Town, and drew with Accrington Stanley, Oldham Athletic, Gillingham (3-3), Grimsby Town and Walsall. The return fixtures could not be retrieved. Exeter City, Rotherham United, Port Vale and Northampton Town come down from League One and York City and Rochdale up from the National League, so there are no recent meetings with those six.

Right now (2026/27)

Gavin Cowan is the manager, appointed on 29 January 2026 after compensation was agreed with Brackley Town, whom he had managed. (The club's Wikipedia infobox dates the appointment to February 2026; the season article's 29 January is used here.) This is his first full season.

The summer rebuild was extensive and no fees were published for any of it. Midfielder Isaac Fletcher arrived from Barrow on 15 June 2026, right-back Byron Pendleton from Birmingham City on 30 June, and right-back Arkell Jude-Boyd on a free from Cheltenham Town on 1 July, the same day striker Josh Davison signed from Tranmere Rovers. Midfielder Jack Price joined from Cowan's former club Brackley Town on 2 July and attacking midfielder Jay Turner-Cooke from Halifax Town on 4 July. Two loans followed: forward Joe Gbode from Luton Town on 13 July and goalkeeper Sam Proctor from Aston Villa on 17 July. Harrison Biggins, Isaac Godwin, Mal Benning, Nick Freeman and John Marquis were among those released.

Pre-season brought draws at Stafford Rangers, Radcliffe and Hereford, home wins over FC Isle of Man (4-0) and Everton under-21s (1-0), and a 4-1 home defeat by West Bromwich Albion. Competitive football has not yet begun: the EFL Cup first round takes Shrewsbury to Salford City on 8 August 2026, and the league season opens at Tranmere Rovers on 15 August.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.