Shrewsbury Town: Relegation back to League Two confirmed

So, 10 years on after coming up from League Two under manager Micky Mellon, Shrewsbury head back there under director of football Micky Moore.

In the end, hopes of an 11th straight season in League One for English football’s longest occupants of the third tier proved too much.

Shrewsbury have spent the past decade competing on a pretty unlevel playing field on the financial front, doing well to survive each season, except for the remarkable 2017-18 campaign when they punched well above their weight, finished third and made the play-off final under Paul Hurst, who then immediately left for Ipswich..

They began this season with Hurst back in charge – but long-serving chairman Roland Wycherley’s plan to hand over the club to new owners at the end of the season after 30 years at the helm quickly came adrift.

Salop got off to a bad start, had an all too brief mini revival after Hurst was sacked in November and new boss Ainsworth donned his cowboy boots to gallop into town.

Ainsworth’s unique brand of motivational skills engineered shock home wins over both League One’s two transatlantic-owned giants, Birmingham City and Wrexham.

But star turn Tom Bloxham was sold in the mid-season window, all the incoming January transfers looked like they were already planning ahead for the bottom tier and, just when the going get rough and League Two was in sight, Ainsworth got going too as he swapped metaphors to jump off the sinking ship and head for Kent.

Shrewsbury are where they should be as far as this season is concerned.

Only one club Wigan Athletic (35) have scored fewer than Town’s 37 goals in 42 games. And only Crawley (81) and Peterborough (72) have leaked more than their 71 goals.

Right now, other than the prospect of new owners following a failed takeover and the hope of Appleton stopping on, all the Town fans have to look forward to is the prospect of meeting Ainsworth again next season when they play Gillingham.