Shrewsbury Town 2 (Rodman 7, Morris 30)
Wolves 0
First half goals from Shrewsbury’s Alex Rodman and Carlton Morris condemned Wolves to a friendly defeat at the Greenhous Meadow.
Wolves kicked off defending the ground that housed 2,900 of their supporters who immediately launched into a chorus of ‘there’s only one Carl Ikeme’ in tribute to the goalkeeper currently battling leukaemia.
Town won an early corner that was taken by Bryn Morris whose inswinger was caught under the bar by John Ruddy.
But the keeper was beaten in the seventh minute when Alex Rodman pounced on a loose ball in the box and hooked a first time shot into the far corner of the net.
Nouha Dicko was a couple of feet short of reaching Barry Douglas’s low cross with only Shrews keeper Dean Henderson blocking his path to goal, and Wanderers looked to have a good penalty shout turned down when Matt Doherty went down under a challenge from Mat Sadler.
Midway through the half Ruben Neves limped off to be replaced by Romain Saiss.
On the half-hour mark, Town doubled their lead when Junior Brown lifted over a cross from the left and Carlton Morris was there to blast the ball into roof of the net from 12-yards out.
There was a chance for Dicko to pull one back when he lost his marker and sprinted towards goal but, from the edge of the ‘D’, he dragged his shot wide.
Jon Nolan went into the book for a challenge on Dave Edwards after the ball had departed the scene.
Wolves won their first corner in the 37th minute but Douglas’s kick was cleared and when the Scottish defender was fouled by James Bolton on the by-line shortly afterwards, Connor Ronan’s free-kick was punched clear by Henderson.
Willy Boly was booked for dissent after he was adjudged to have committed a halfway line foul and objected a little too strongly for the liking of the referee shortly before the break.
Half-Time: Town 2 Wolves 0
Wolves made eight changes at the interval with Saiss, Doherty and Douglas the three that remained. Town switched three players.
On 55 minutes Michal Zyro ran onto Bright Enobakhare’s through ball and planted a low shot past Shrews replacement keeper Craig MacGillivray only for Christos Shelis to chase back and clear off the line.
Aaron Simpson and Ruben Vinagre replaced Doherty and Douglas in the 63rd minute as Town boss Paul Hurst made a further five changes to his line-up.
In the 72nd minute, Zyro was brought down by Ebou Adams outside the home area and Saiss drew a full length diving save from MacGillivray with the resultant free-kick.
The industrious Jack Price then crossed from the right for Saiss to get in a powerful header that was too high to bother MacGillivray
A Shaun Whalley snapshot was well taken by Will Norris in the visitors goal and, just before the end, after Simpson had been fouled by Junior Brown to the right of the Shrews area, any chance of a late consolation was lost when Price’s free-kick was headed clear.
Town: Henderson (MacGillivray 45), Sadler (Shelis 45), Ogogo (capt) (Dodds 63), Morris (John-Lewis 45), Gnahoua (Whalley 63), Brown, Bolton, Morris, Nolan (Adams 63), Nsiala, Rodman (James 63).
Booking: Nolan (36 – foul).
Wolves: Ruddy (Norris 45), Doherty (Vinagre 63), Douglas (Simpson 63), Edwards (capt) (Price 45), Boly (Batth 45), Coady (Deslandes 45) Cavaleiro (Zyro 45), Neves (Saiss 21), Dicko (Mason 45), Ronan (Enobakhare 45), Miranda (Bennett 45).
Unused subs: Graham, Burgoyne.
Booking: Boly (41 – dissent).
Referee: R. Lewis.
Attendance: 5,409 (2,908 away supporters).
