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Reliving 95/96: Robins Fail To Tame The Shrews
Twenty years on from Swindon Town’s title-winning season in Division Two, David Wallis tells the tale of that 1995/96 campaign week by week – every week on Total Sport. The story continues as Shrewsbury Town arrive in SN1, with an upset in the offing.
So far Town had had things pretty much their own way in Division Two.
One defeat in 17 League matches had seen Swindon rapidly hit the top of the table and remain there, and by the time the last week of November came around the arrival of Shrewsbury Town at the County Ground gave few of the 9,000 people in attendance reason to fear things were about to change.
But the Football League’s other STFC had other ideas, inflicting the first home loss of the season on Steve McMahon’s team and leaving a three point gap between Swindon and second placed Notts County.
After consecutive draws Town were keen to get back on the winning trail and the game was a one-sided affair, but with the Shrews having just two shots on target throughout the entire 90 minutes, the final whistle saw the Shropshire side claim all the points.
Jason Drysdale replaced the dropped Paul Bodin at left back while Martin Ling stood in for the injured Paul Allen, and it took the Shrews twenty minutes to claim their first attacking move of the game.
Steve Finney saw an effort saved expertly by keeper Paul Edwards before Steve McMahon received his weekly booking for a challenge on ex-Swindon winger Austin Berkley.
Future Swindon midfielder Paul Evans was man marking Steve McMahon and received a card after a succession of over enthusiastic challenges as Town continued to dictate play. Chances fell to Ling and the Waynes of Allison and O’Sullivan, before Finney was again denied.
Then, with a quarter of an hour remaining, Richard Scott outraced Mark Robinson to a deep centre and steered the ball home from six yards.
Ty Gooden had an excellent chance to level with two minutes left but Edwards was again equal to his sweetly struck effort.
The defeat was Town’s first in the League in eight weeks
Never one to be happy in defeat McMahon was less than complimentary about the visiting teams’ tactics.
"I can’t believe teams can get away with playing like that. If they are happy then so be it, but I don’t know where the game is going if they carry on playing like that. They were just so negative. We never go away with those sort of tactics," he said.
"I suppose teams can only play to their capabilities’, he continued condescendingly. ‘Maybe that’s why they did it."
And of his weekly booking, McMahon was as contentious as ever.
"It was unbelievable. The guy turned in towards me and just went to try and get me booked. He will probably go home and tell his wife he got me booked. After that I had to be careful especially if the referee is in that mood."
Somewhat more magnanimously, sweeper Ian Culverhouse said: "All credit to Shrewsbury because they got the result. We have to be cleverer. In the end we were just hitting balls down their necks and they were happy to sit back and eat them all day long."
If that defeat came as a shock to the system, more was to come on Wednesday 29th November when Hereford visited the County Ground in a AWS tie.
Lee Collins made his debut for Town after his £15,000 arrival from Scottish side Albion Rovers, but the evening was notable for the return of one man in particular.
Hereford striker Steve White turned back the clock with a virtuoso performance against his former employers, first drawing a full length save from Fraser Digby before pouncing on a deflected shot to fire the Bulls in front as half time beckoned.
There will have been very few away strikers who received the acclaim from a home County Ground crowd as Chalkie did for that strike, and very few Town supporters begrudged their old hero passage to the last 16 at the end of the evening.
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