Now celebrating its 125th year, the small fourth tier football club of Shrewsbury Town have a rich history that has seen the team climb to the heights of the top ten in the second tier of English football. Over the years great players have worn the shirt, including Arthur Rowley, who still holds the record for the most Football League goals scored in a career, and current England goalkeeper Joe Hart.
What started as a pub team in the county town of Shropshire, now play at a purpose-built stadium on the outskirts of the town and still have ambitions to return to more lofty heights in footballing terms. The return in 2010 of their most successful ever manager Graham Turner has rekindled those hopes.
The Birth of Shrewsbury Town
Though there were football clubs in the town that bore the name Shrewsbury before 1886, the history of the current team can be traced back to two meetings in May 1886 at the Lion Hotel and the Turf Hotel in Shrewsbury. Their first real competition was a six-a-side tournament later that year in which they entered two teams – the other being called Shrewsbury Wanderers – and they met in the final, the Wanderers winning.
Their first eleven-a-side trophy came in 1887 when they won the Shropshire Senior Cup, beating Wellington Town in the final. Over the following years, they played mostly regional competitions and the FA Cup and Welsh Cup before joining the Birmingham & District League in 1895.
Their early years were spent at various grounds around the town but in 1910 they moved to their first permanent home – the Gay Meadow on the banks of the River Severn, where they stayed for nearly a century. They won the Birmingham & District League in 1923.
The 1937/38 season saw them switch to the Midlands Counties League, which they won at the first attempt along with the Welsh Cup and Shropshire Senior Cup.
After a number of attempts to join the Football League, success happened in 1950 when they were elected to Division Three North, which they played in for just one season before switching to Division Three South. Their mid to low table finishes meant that in 1958 when the regional leagues were scrapped to create a Division Three and Division Four, Shrewsbury Town ended up in Division Four. That year also saw the arrival of Arthur Rowley as player-manager.
The Arthur Rowley Era
Arthur Rowley started his career at West Bromwich Albion, where he scored just four goals before adding 26 in his two years at Fulham and a massive 251 during his eight years at Leicester City. His career at Shrewsbury Town would see him score another 152 goals, bringing a total of 434, a record that still stands today as the most career goals in the Football League.
His first goals for Shrewsbury Town were in the second match of the 1958/59 season, when he scored both in a 2-1 victory over Gateshead. Shrewsbury Town finished that season in fourth place and were promoted to Division Three, where they finished third the following season, but in those days only two went up – eight draws in their last ten matches cost them promotion.
The 1960/61 season saw them slip to tenth in the league but reach the semi-final of the newly created League Cup, beating Everton in the quarter finals before losing to Rotherham United in a two-legged semi-final.
Arthur Rowley hung up his boots as a player in 1965 but continued as manager for another three years before leaving to manage Sheffield United. The 1967/68 season saw another third place finish, just one point denying them promotion to the second tier. For the next five years, Shrewsbury Town hung around as a mid-table side in Division Three.
Alan Durban and Graham Turner
In January 1973, Shrewsbury Town sold Jim Holton, who was signed on a free two years earlier, to Manchester United for £90,000 and then promptly used £30,000 of that money to buy Graham Turner from Chester City. The following season started off badly and so manager Maurice Evans in September signed Welsh international Alan Durban from Derby County. When the poor form continued, Evans was sacked and replaced as player-manager by Alan Durban. Despite a good run towards the end of the season, Durban could not stop relegation to Division Four.
However, the improvement in the team had already started and the following season they finished second, winning promotion back to Division Three. Three years of mid-table finishes followed until the crucial 1978/79 season. Alan Durban had left in February the previous season to become manager of Stoke City and his assistant Richie Barker took over as manager. After a good start to the 1978/79 season, Barker went to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Graham Turner became player-manager. That season saw Shrewsbury Town reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, beating Manchester City on the way, and win the championship to earn promotion to the second tier of English football.
There then followed a glorious decade in the second tier, including three years in the top ten and another FA Cup quarter final appearance in 1982. Graham Turner left in 1984 but Shrewsbury Town stayed in the second tier until they were relegated in 1989. Relegation to the fourth tier followed in 1992 but they were back up to the third tier two seasons later. The 1995/96 season saw Shrewsbury Town’s only appearance at the old Wembley Stadium when they lost in the League Trophy final to Rotherham United. The current era of Shrewsbury Town started later in 1996 when Roland Wycherley became chairman.
The Roland Wycherley Era
Local businessman and Shrewsbury Town supporter Roland Wycherley took over as chairman for the 1996/97 season and is still there today, despite the club having its worst period in footballing terms since they joined the league. The 1996-97 season started off encouragingly with only one defeat in the first nine league games but then six defeats on the trot saw them tumble down the table. First round exits in the League Cup and FA Cup added to the misery of a season that saw Shrewsbury Town relegated to the fourth tier.
Those who thought it could not get worse were wrong, when they were relegated out of the league in 2003. The season in the Conference that resulted saw seventeen-year-old Joe Hart make his debut in goal. Joe Hart went on to join Manchester City and become England’s goalkeeper. Despite bouncing back to the Football League after one season in the Conference, Shrewsbury Town are still languishing in the basement division, though they have reached the play-off finals twice, both at the new Wembley Stadium, and the play-off semi-finals once.
Wycherley’s era also has seen the club sell its Gay Meadow stadium to a property developer to clear the club’s debts and finance a new ground on the outskirts of the town. While the ground was being built, it became known as the New Meadow, but the club realised the financial potential of naming rights and so Roland Wycherley refused to allow it to be given a name for the 2007/08 season. The fans continued calling it New Meadow as a result, and the name has stuck despite two different companies having had naming rights since.
In a bid to bring back the good times, Roland Wycherley brought back Graham Turner as manager to revitalise the club’s performances in summer 2010.
See also Real Ale Pubs and Bars in Shrewsbury.
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Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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