No New Year joy for Latics
After a very tight first half both teams came out for the second half with the same starting line-ups.
The first real chance of the half came after 50 minutes when a speculative ball through that Shrewsbury midfielder Adam Reach hit from 20 yards not really testing Latics keeper Mark Oxley. Shrewsbury where having more of the ball in the opening stages of the second half.
After managing the maintain some possession Latics’ first proper chance of the half fell to David Mellor 20 yards – hitting a rasping drive that tested keeper Chris Weale to the full.
Michael Petrasso attacked ex Latics full back Joe Jacobsen and put a an inviting ball in that Rooney met well with a clean header that hit the post at a ferocious pace.
Latics where again having a lot of the ball but where struggling to find a cutting edge. Korey Smith had a couple of chances to deliver a ball in the Shrewsbury box that he didn’t manage to take advantage of.
The Shrews took the lead in the 62nd minutes when Aaron Wildig was put through by Luke Summerfield, eventually finishing after hitting the post with his first effort.
The Latics nearly immediately replied when Jonson Clarke Harris hit a ferocious free kick that was well saved by keeper Chris Weale. From the resulting corner a good ball in was not taken advantage of by the Latics’ attacking contingent.
The match was sweetly poised as we reached the 70 minute mark and the game felt like it could go either way.
The first substitutions in the match came after 73 minutes with the Latics replacing Adam Rooney with Kirk Millar and James Dayton replaced by Sidney Schmeltz. Shrewsbury also made a substitution replacing Aaron Wildig with Nicky Wroe.
Another chance fell to the Latics after 76 minutes when a fantastic ball in by Clarke Harris that just needed somebody on the end of it. From the resulting corner the ball fell to James Tarkowski but he didn’t manage to connect properly with the ball.
Genserix Kusunga was substituted for Anton Rodgers in the 75th minute.
The Latics were getting on top an inviting ball by Sidney Schmeltz was wasted by the Latics forward line.
A Speculative effort by Shrewsbury’s Jon Taylor was wasted and Tom Eaves was also continuing to be a hassle the Latics defenders any time the ball was put into the Latics’ box.
As we reached the last 10 minutes of the match the game was very open at this point the rain was starting to come down stronger and stronger.
As the final whistle approached Michael Petrasso finally managed to get behind the Shrews’ defence, but in both cases failing to pick out the killer pass.
Kirk Millar was managing to attack the Shrews defence more freely and he had another opportunity, which he failed to convert.
The referee added an additional 6 minutes at the end but the Latics failed to capitalise on this compounding a frustrating afternoon for all.
Full-time: Latics 1, Shrewsbury Town 2.
Attendance: 3,669 (292 from Shrewsbury)