Four wins in their last eight games (including an impressive 3-0 victory at Rotherham), as well as two draws, and the Shrews look set for another season in League One next year.
Indeed, sitting in eighth place in the last six-game form guide, just a place below Town, shows Shrewsbury are a side who belie their 16th place standing in the division. They are 11 points clear of the drop zone.
For much of the time the Shrews have been in and around the drop zone. They lost five of their first six League One encounters at the start of the campaign, and lost to Town at Portman Road in October.
But a good run of form around Christmas and New Year, where they went unbeaten in five, hauled them out of the relegation zone.
It’s not often a team in the bottom half of the table has conceded less goals than many in the top six with just a handful of games to go.
But that’s the situation with the Shrews, who have let in just 39 goals this season, only Rotherham (25) and Wigan (35) have a better goals against record.
However, Shrewsbury are hardly big scorers either. Their measly total of 41 goals scored so far this season is the fourth lowest in League One.
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Luke Chambers was the only fit central defender on Ipswich Town’s books heading into the opening day of the 2018/19 season, following Paul Hurst’s drawn-out and ultimately failed attempt to sign Curtis Tilt of Blackpool.
Those attempts continued beyond the deadline for permanent deals and into the loan window, while there were also failed bids for Deji Oshilaja of AFC Wimbledon as Hurst desperately looked for reinforcements following the sale of Adam Webster.
So when Matthew Pennington arrived as a deadline day loan from Everton, the defender was viewed as something of a stop-gap, third-choice signing. He proved that was far from the case.
