Shrewsbury Town F.C.

Nickname(s)
 Short name
 Founded
 Ground
 Chairman
 Manager
 Current League
 2014–15
 Website

**Shrewsbury Town Football Club** is a football club in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, which will play in League One for the 2015–16 season after winning promotion from League Two.

The club was formed in 1886 and was elected to The Football League in 1950, where it has played in all of its bottom three divisions, apart from spending the 2003–04 season in the Conference Premier. It has also competed in the Welsh Cup, winning it six times, a record for an English team.

From 1886 onwards, the club was based at Gay Meadow on the banks of the River Severn. Since 2007, they have played at the New Meadow, a UEFA Category four stadium with a capacity of 9,875.

## Club colours

The club's colours have always featured blue. However, blue has not always been the most dominant colour. Early kits included blue and white stripes, quartered shirts and all-blue shirts, which were worn with either white or amber trim until 1978. In 1978 Shrewsbury's most famous kit was introduced – the blue and amber stripes, which they wore as they were promoted in successive seasons, up to the old second division (now the Football League Championship). This was the design famously seen in the movie This Is Spinal Tap.

The club was not loyal to the stripes for long, and in 1982 reverted to a blue shirt, then used a blue body with amber sleeves, later reverting to an amber body with blue sleeves. In 1987 the shirts radically changed to white shirts for four seasons before reverting to stripes in 1991–92. After a flamboyant abstract pattern on the shirts in 1992–93, Shrewsbury's kits have stayed mostly blue, with amber stripe(s) of some description evident since 1999.

The shirt sponsors have, since their introduction in 1982, all been local companies. The current shirt sponsor is a major local motor dealership network, Greenhous, whom are also the primary sponsor of the stadium.

## Current Squad

### Out on Loan

* Mickey Demetriou *(at Cambridge United until 1 January 2016)*
* James Caton *(at Mansfield Town until 5 September 2015)*
* Kaiman Anderson *(at AFC Telford until 9 January 2016)*

## Rivals

Traditionally Walsall and Wolverhampton Wanderers have been seen as the club's major rivals. In more recent years rivalry grew with near-neighbours Hereford United, with the rivalry being nineteenth in The Daily Telegraph's Twenty fiercest rivalries in English football. This is known as the 'A49 derby' due to the road separating the two teams.

Shrewsbury also have a rivalry with Chester City, following crowd difficulties at Chester's stadium during a league match in season 2003–04 when well over 2,000 Shrewsbury fans, some in different parts of the home sections, appeared to come forward to the pitchside when a tannoy spokesman asked "If there are any more Shrewsbury Town fans in the home section would you please come down to the perimeter so you can be appropriately relocated in the away section".

A rivalry developed with Port Vale, located in neighbouring Staffordshire, after Vale were relegated to League Two in the 2007–08 season. Their first encounter in the 2008–09 season was their first encounter for at least 30 years, with Vale coming into the game having had six straight defeats prior. The fans eventually tried to get at each other after a Shrewsbury equaliser made it 1–1, and the match led to an away pitch invasion after a controversial added time winner from Vale's Marc Richards, which saw the ball deflect in off his chest as he lunged in to tackle Luke Daniels' save attempt. Every encounter since has been lively and has involved incidents with fans in and out of the football grounds. From season 2008–09 to season 2010–11 Shrews only managed three points from six matches with Vale. However, Shrewsbury finally broke the Vale undefeated streak with a 2011–12 season double, even looking likely to take 3 points in a home game that was called off in the 65th minute. Shrewsbury were promoted to League One at the end of the season, while Port Vale finished mid-table.

Crewe Alexandra and Kidderminster Harriers have also been popular away games, especially the former since their relegation to League Two in the 2008–09 season. Another rivalry is the Shropshire Derby against AFC Telford United which is annually contested in the Shropshire Senior Cup, although owing to Telford's lower stature in footballing terms the rivalry is not reciprocated by Shrews' fans. A former rivalry with Wrexham is also less important, with Wrexham no longer being in the Football League.