Shrewsbury Town v Crewe Alex 25-26 Preview - Now or Never

The Alex don't often travel to Shrewsbury with real stakes involved. Their last 3 visits were 2 Septembers and another behind closed doors. The last time the Alex travelled with fans for a game with real weight on the result was at the end of the 13-14 season, when they were battling relegation and got a huge 3-1 win. This time though, they are fighting tooth and nail for a play-off spot. Well, at least they should be. Here is my preview of their short trip to Shropshire:

Big Crowd

The Alex are going to be roared on by their biggest away crowd of the season. Just less than 1,800 Crewe fans are going to be packed into the away end at New Meadow looking for a big performance from the players. Their performances in front of big travelling Alex contingents have been mixed this season. They are 2-1-3 when taking over 500 away fans and 1-1-1 when taking over 1,000. Hopefully this game we'll see more Salford and Tranmere rather than Notts County or Bristol Rovers.

New Manager Bounce Running Out

Gavin Cowan has done an incredible job with Shrewsbury so far. 5 straight wins bagged him the manager of the month award for February. However, there are signs that his impact is starting to lessen. After those 5 wins, the Shrews have now lost 3 of their last 4. Back to back home defeats against Walsall and Cheltenham, plus a late 1-0 loss at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday, surely will have dented their confidence somewhat.

Had the Alex played them a few weeks ago, I'd have been terrified. I'm still nervous now, but I'm feeling a little bit more confident now that they've had a couple of losses to contend with.

Spread the goals

What makes Shrewsbury a tough team to stop at the moment is that they don't have one particular focal point for goals. 10 different players have scored in their good run under Cowan. That has made up for the fact they don't have any goalscorers in the team, with George Lloyd being their top scorer with 4.

The Alex too have done a good job of not relying too heavily on one player lately as well. Across their last 11 games, they have scored 12 goals, with 10 different players bagging at least one. Only Alfie Pond and Josh March have scored more than 1 in that run.

Good luck trying to guess who the first goalscorer might be in this one, as it could be any player from either side.

Good Record

Whilst the Alex struggle against other local(ish) sides like Walsall and Port Vale, Shrewsbury are a side they generally do ok against. They have only lost on 3 of their 8 visits to New Meadow and are unbeaten in their last 4, winning 3 of them. I won't go as far as to say this stadium has become a happy hunting ground for the Alex, but if they can pick up another good result here, it might be on it's way to becoming one.

Away Improvements

Whilst their all round performances still aren't great, the Alex have been finding a way to grind out results on the road lately. Since the Notts County defeat, they are 2-3-1 away from home. They recovered from losing positions to pick up points against Bromley, Barnet and Cheltenham.

That was mitigated by them throwing away 3 against Bristol Rovers, but the fact is, they have gotten some big results. This represents another great opportunity to do just that.

Now or Never

The maths is simple in the race for the top 7. The Alex need to be looking to get somewhere between 70-73 points to give themselves a chance at finishing in the top 7. That requires 13-16 points from their 8 remaining games. That's a 4-1-3/5-1-2 record.

It's a tough ask given their final 5 opponents. That means realistically, they need 7 points minimum from their next 3, their final games against sides currently below them in the table. Get 7 points from these 3 and it would put them on 64 points heading into Salford on Easter Monday. It would give them a fighting chance heading into those final 5 at the very least.

So, whilst a draw/defeat here wouldn't completely rule them out of the top 7 race, a failure to win would see a tough task become borderline impossible. It really is now or never.

Ref Watch

Jamie O'Connor

O'Connor has only done 2 Shrewsbury matches. They lost both. He's only done 1 Crewe Alex game, which was the 0-0 draw at Gillingham in February last year where he sent Ryan Cooney off, fairly I might add. Fingers crossed he doesn't have any reason to do the same again in this game.

2025-26 Record: 29 games(6 League One, 8 League Two, 1 FA Cup, 7 EFL Trophy, 5 National League, 1 PLDL 2, 1 NL Cup), 104 yellows, 6 reds

Last Game: Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Doncaster Rovers, Tuesday 17th March 2026, EFL League One, 6 yellows

Crewe Alex Record: 0-1-0, 3 yellows, 1 red

Injuries/Absences

Shrewsbury

The Shrews seem a little banged up at the moment. On Tuesday they were missing Luca Hoole, Sam Clucas, John Marquis, Taylor Perry and Bradley Ihionvien, whilst Josh Ruffels will complete the final game of his 4 match ban.

Crewe Alex

Fingers crossed the squad is the same one Bell had to pick from on Tuesday, with hopefully no new concerns. Although Conor Thomas' half time withdrawal at Whaddon Road could be a bad sign, as it was when he came off against Gillingham and missed the next 3 games.

In positive news away from the current first team squad, Shilow Tracey will feature for the U21s next week. But any hopes of a return should be tempered. He's likely weeks away from being ready for even a bench spot and weeks more away from having enough fitness to contribute. And that's assuming he even returns to the level he was at when he got injured a year ago. His return is a great story, but if you are expecting anything from him between now and the end of the season, I wouldn't get too excited.

Team

There were signs that a few players were starting to get their legs back under them on Tuesday. I hope anyway. So, I would make a few changes. The first is Powell coming back into midfield for Conor Thomas. You need CMs who want the ball and putting 2 ball players in together makes sense. Plus, starting Thomas 3 games on the trot feels like you are dicing with danger.

The back 4 stays the same, but the attacking trio needs some tweaking. I don't think March and Tezgel can both start, so one needs to make way. It's a tough one, but I'd probably go with Tezgel. March goes up front and once again, I think Lankester needs to start. He looked a bit brighter against Cheltenham, so he goes in behind March, with O'Reilly on the right and Holicek on the left.

Score Prediction

This is a big game in front of a big fired up crowd. As I said above, almost 1,800 Crewe fans will be watching on, expecting a performance full of fire and energy. They really, really need a win, what with Chesterfield and Grimsby threatening to pull away and the likes of Walsall and Oldham closing in behind them. I hope they can manage to grab the win. It would be huge ahead of the home game with Oldham.

Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Crewe Alexandra