History of Shrewsbury Town F.C.

The club moved to Gay Meadow on the edge of the town centre, within sight of Shrewsbury Abbey, and stayed 97 years.

During his playing and managerial career, he broke Dixie Dean's goal-scoring record, scoring his 380th league goal against Bradford City at Valley Parade on 29 April 1961.

With the game 2–2 at half time, Shrewsbury were 45 minutes from a semi-final appearance, but Leicester, having used three goalkeepers and including a young Gary Lineker in their line up, eventually ran out 5–2 winners.

In the Third Division, on 22 December 1990, Gary Shaw scored the quickest Town hat trick – 4 minutes and 32 seconds – against Bradford City at Valley Parade.

Dwindling crowds meant Shrewsbury didn't have the finances to compete and it was in this backdrop that Jake King arrived, following a successful reign at local rivals Telford United.

Former Everton captain and Welsh international Kevin Ratcliffe was appointed manager steered the club from relegation on the final day of 1999–2000.

A first-half free kick from Nigel Jemson gave Town the lead at the interval, however an equaliser from Niclas Alexandersson appeared to send the tie to a replay at Goodison Park.

Striker Luke Rodgers, seemingly a banker to score a penalty stepped up, but inexplicably blasted his shot high over the bar.

In the eyes of most fans, Jimmy Quinn was not up to the job, and departed after just 14 league games, being replaced by former Preston manager Gary Peters.

Peters came to Gay Meadow with a modest but at the same time impressive track record, including a spell as Preston manager during the mid-1990s, during which he signed David Beckham as a loan player.

Many pundits saw Shrewsbury as relegation favourites in the 2005–06 season, but despite a poor start, Peters was able to guide the team to a tenth-place finish, narrowly missing the play-offs.

The Shrewsbury Town board, headed by Roland Wycherley, was starting to see their policy of sound financial management pay off, with the club more solvent than many of its rivals.

[citation needed] The recent FA cup run, subsequent fall-out from the Ratcliffe era and the solitary season in the Conference had galvanised local support, and attendances were on the increase.

Despite the departure of talented young goalkeeper Joe Hart to Manchester City,[2] Shrewsbury entered the 2006–07 season as promotion hopefuls in their final year at Gay Meadow.

Following a 2–2 draw against Grimsby Town in the final League match to be held at Gay Meadow, Shrewsbury finished in seventh place and thus qualified for the play-offs.

Despite several encouraging performances, Shrewsbury's win at their opening away match, versus Exeter City was to be their only league victory away from home for eight months, until beating Rotherham United 2–1 at the Don Valley Stadium in April.

A dramatic 2–1 victory saw Shrewsbury snatch the final play-off place at the expense of the plucky Daggers, in only their second season of league football.

Whilst Daniels was seen by some as the villain after the home leg, three days later he produced a man of the match performance as Shrewsbury progressed to their second play-off final in three years.

The FA Cup run saw them dispatch Conference club Newport County and League 2 Rotherham United before being very narrowly beaten by 1–0 by the Championship's Middlesbrough at The Riverside Stadium.

This included keeper Chris Neal, centre back duo Shane Cansdall-Sheriff and (captain) Ian Sharps, central midfielder Nicky Wroe and 2011-12's 16-goal top goalscorer James Collins.

This included experienced keepers Chris Weale from Leicester City and youngster Joe Anyon from Lincoln City, centre back Darren Jones from Aldershot, central midfielders Luke Summerfield (Cheltenham Town) and Asa Hall (Oxford United), utility and former Hereford duo Rob Purdie (Hereford Utd) and Paul Parry (Preston North End), Southampton youngster Ryan Doble (striker) and centre back Michael Hector on-loan from Reading.

Beating Preston North End 1–0 at home matched their performances, whilst losing 3–2 to then top of the table Notts County away didn't.

After the dropping, and eventual departure, of promising on-loan centre back Michael Hector, Darren Jones was to suffer greatly in form.

Jones was to be paired with a number of different centre backs, this included Shrewsbury players Reuben Hazell and Jermaine Grandison, as well as loan signings Lee Collins (Barnsley) and Julian Bennett (Sheffield Wednesday), the former making many mistakes much like his partner Jones, the latter showing some more promising performances before returning to Wednesday due to injury.

Shrewsbury's passing game also started to let them down, with the midfield finding it hard to link up with the strikers, most notably captain Matt Richards who had personally failed to match the form he showed in the season prior.

This coincided with a noticeable improvement in defence, with youngster Connor Goldson finding form, promising performances from centre back loan signings Rob Edwards (Sheffield United) and youngster Yado Mambo (Charlton Athletic), and a greater attacking threat with the signing and return of Shrewsbury legend Luke Rodgers and the rise in form of goalscoring winger Jon Taylor.

The 6'5 striker managed 6 goals in 10 games, which included an impressive hat trick at home to Crawley Town before being recalled by his parent club, most likely due to his performances.

[5] Mellon left for Tranmere Rovers in October 2016, and he was replaced by Grimsby Town manager Paul Hurst, with Shrewsbury bottom.

[9] A highlight of the 2019–20 season under Ricketts was a fourth round FA Cup tie against the holding European champions Liverpool which Shrewsbury drew 2–2.

[11] However, following disruption to the season in March 2020 due to COVID-19, final League One standings were decided on a points per game basis with Shrewsbury finishing in 15th place.