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Post by Saaalop on May 13, 2004 13:32:48 GMT 1
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Griff
Midland League Division One
Posts: 449
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Post by Griff on May 13, 2004 13:47:10 GMT 1
It's The Telegraph, but not to worry A good article that, thanks for spotting it.. Quinn to be on the bench on Sunday according to Sybil... so, I guess that would mean Hart, Quinn, Edwards, Cramb and Lawrence... And no Banim coming off the bench to score a late winner...! Or, will Gregor make a late play for the last 16?! - good to see him involved in the training in yesterday's Star. Still committed to the cause even though he's not likely to be involved and will soon be off...
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Post by Saaalop on May 13, 2004 13:49:49 GMT 1
Times, Telegraph, Independent, Guardian..... They're all the same to us working class folk
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Post by Red Blue and Amber on May 13, 2004 14:16:23 GMT 1
Shrewsbury at fever pitch By Sybil Ruscoe (Filed: 13/05/2004)
If there was a rehab centre like the Priory for football fans there would be no shortage of Shrewsbury Town supporters for the group therapy sessions. In the past two years their nerves have been shredded by the mercurial fortunes of their beloved team.
There was the "Great Escape" victory at Exeter which kept them in the League and the giant-killing defeat of Everton in the FA Cup. Then came relegation to the Conference and now a nail-biting finale to the season. Shrewsbury had to survive a penalty shootout against Barnet to win a place in the play-off final against Aldershot and now stand 90 minutes away from an immediate return to League football.
"We haven't exactly played like Arsenal this season, but we've got the results," said Town player-manager Jimmy Quinn, the former Northern Ireland international. "I've felt all along that we wouldn't be far away. It's like a soldier going into war, if you go into enough battles you know what to expect."
Quinn's preparations for Sunday's crucial game have included a ban on alcohol and a day at Chester races. Gay Meadow certainly isn't Highbury. In an age when soccer is bank-rolled by billionaires and glittering with foreign superstars, there is not a lot of glamour at Shrewsbury Town.
The ground is old and out-dated and even the coracleman, who famously fished footballs from the River Severn, has long since paddled off to the great river in the sky. But despite the lack of kudos, passion still burns in the hearts of Shropshire lads.
Average Conference gates for Shrewsbury have been up 1,000 to 4,000 and 13,000 fans will travel up the A53 to Stoke City's Britannia Stadium for Sunday's encounter with Aldershot, who are managed by Quinn's old Hayes manager, Terry Brown.
Quinn, whose list of clubs reads like a tube of those soccer sweets from the Seventies, actually started his working life in menswear at Debenham's in Croydon, but his footballing career began in Shropshire at Whitchurch Alport in 1978 when he was a postman.
"I lived up here years ago and I've got a great affinity with the area, so it'll be extra special if we can do it on Sunday. If we bounce back it'll be a great achievement and the best thing I've done in management," said Quinn, who has quite a record of being a nearly man.
He almost won promotion to the old First Division with Blackburn Rovers in the Eighties and almost made the Premiership when managing Reading. Getting tantalisingly close to the big time has made him hungry for success.
"I am young and very ambitious and I want to manage in the Premiership," he said, "but I've got a job to do here and it's not just getting Shrewsbury in the Third Division. I want us in the First Division," said Quinn, 44, who's scored more than 300 goals and who will be on the substitutes' bench on Sunday.
If the Shrewsbury players are victorious they may celebrate with a pint of "Blue and Amber Nectar" (Shrewsbury's colours), a new beer produced especially for the final by a local brewery. Quinn, meanwhile, has one more important match - his wedding on a beach in Antigua. "I don't think defeat will ruin the wedding, but victory will definitely be the icing on our wedding cake," he smiled.
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