Shrewsbury Town VS Exeter City

Shrewsbury host Exeter for this English League One round 9 clash at Greenhous Meadow early Wednesday morning Beijing time. This is the third tier of English football. Really skilled individuals are rare in this league but this the best third-highest level on the planet. Most teams play pretty simple and physical – one could say “old school” English football. Players are expected to fight for every ball and a lot of emotions and heated situations can be seen on the pitch in this league. Most teams also good stadiums and a surprisingly high number of fans cheering for their team. Neither team are among the top-teams in League One and promoting to Championship would definitely be a surprise. Exeter, in fact, were promoted from League Two for this season and do have a decent squad for League One too but I rated them lower than the betting market and most football analysts already in my preseason analysis and once again think they are over-rated here. A balanced battle is on the cards here but unlike the bookies I see the hosts as slim favorites and with the recommenced +0.5 goals handicap bet on them my fans and I have 71% chance of winning yet another bet. I do have to admit though that Exeter have unarguably started the League One season quite well and have 11 points to their account. Their goal difference is 10:5 but luck has played a role and realistically they should have grabbed less points and conceded three more goals.

Exeter did play well in their most recent match against MK Dons at home winning 1-0 but I have to say that the visitors were far from their normal level in this match, and I would not give this match too much emphasis.. Before this they suffered a 1-2 defeat at home against Newport as favorites according to the bookies and looked vulnerable in defense. Furthermore, they were very lame against Accrington away from home and failed to record any shots on goal on the 30th of August. Accrington would have deserved a win after creating much more in expected goals and recording almost 20 goal attempts – Exeter had just seven. I am pretty sure they will not drop down in the standings from the current 7th place soon. They have won just one of their latest five matches overall. Shrewsbury played in this league last season as well but were a little disappointing and were close to being relegated. They do have potential for better performances though. They had a slow start to the season but have improved lately and have lost just one of their most recent five matches in this league. In EFL Cup and EFL trophy they did lose one match respectively but the opponents – Wolves U21 and especially Burnley – were clear favorites in these matches. I was still pretty happy with their performances in both games! Shrewsbury do have lot of work to do with their offense as they have scored just five times but are, on the other hand, a very well-structured team and have conceded just six goals in this league. In their most recent match against Forest Green they were forced to defend more than expected, but did not allow the hosts too many dangerous scoring chances and got away with a morale-boosting 2-0 away win.