22 home League games left, will they all be like that?

Well, that was fun wasn’t it!? Can’t recall when we last put 4 in the onion bag and kept a clean sheet. It wasn’t just the score line though, we actually looked good. 

It’s worth recalling we made a reasonable start last season, picking up 5 points from our opening 3 games. We also beat Accrington 3-0 in the League Cup. The optimising was there then only to dissipate across the autumn. Yet this felt like something different.  There was an energy to our play and a fluency to what we were doing that hasn’t been there for a long time. Particularly pleasing was how the new players slotted in. Smudge, Paddy Brough, Richie Smallwood, Kenneh, Whittaker, all looked good. The players from last season also seem to look a bit sharper. Top of the heap is Davison. However, Lee O’Connor also seems much more confident. Is it the benefit of having more reliable players around?

Leaving the ground I got the sense that performances like Saturday’s can set the standard but can also raise expectations too highly. It wasn’t a perfect day by any means. We got the run of the decisions when it came to the sending off in the 2nd half, until that point the Shrews had started to look threatening. Whether or not they were able to pull two goals back is questionable, but we weathered their improvements and then got our noses even further in front.

Next up are Burton Albion. They have become a solid League 1 team in recent seasons and may be a tougher test than Shrewsbury. Like Tranmere they had a much better second half to last season than the first. They also suffered a narrow defeat away to Barnsley on Saturday. I suspect they will be wanting to put that to bed. 

After that we have another test with Gillingham on Saturday. There is a fair degree of expectations around the Kent club this season. They beat much fancied Walsall on the opening day and took a point off Accrington last Saturday.  A win would be very helpful for us.

For a number of seasons our target has been to get to around about 50 points to avoid relegation. I get the sense that season might be a bit different. It’s only 2 games in but things are looking positive. Hopefully it will continue for another 9 months.