Football Bet of the Day: Shrewsbury can sink Red Devils

We’ve got a whole load of international football to look forward to on Saturday, while League 1 offers up two fixtures for us to enjoy. It is England’s third tier that takes our focus for Saturday’s Football Bet of the Day as Crawley Town host Shrewsbury Town in what is a key match at the bottom of the table. 

Below I’ve taken a look at this fixture and come up with a Football Bet of the Day for you to consider. 

Now both of these teams are likely to be mired in a relegation battle this season, but despite sitting two points and one place below Crawley in the bottom four, I’m backing Shrewsbury to win this game to nil. 

Paul Hurst’s men had been handed an incredibly difficult fixture list to start the season, and they’ve struggled to pick up points so far. However, they’ve already played Wrexham, Stockport, Bolton, Rotherham, Charlton, Huddersfield and Peterborough, all teams who you would expect to finish in the top-10 this term. 

Their recent results have actually picked up a bit after a sticky start as they drew at home to Rotherham before also picking up a point away at Bolton. That would have been seen as a great result on most occasions, but the Shrews sat back and threw away a two-goal lead, managing just 28 per cent possession. 

However, they’ve shown enough for me to back them to beat Crawley, who have come undone since influential manager Scott Lindsey decided to leave the club for League 2 MK Dons. He was a miracle worker, and I don't think that’s an exaggeration. Crawley were the favourites to go down from the fourth tier at the start of the 2023/24 season, and he led them to promotion through the play-offs. 

Over the summer, Crawley lost pretty much all of their key players to clubs that could offer higher wages. Will Wright, Liam Kelly and Nick Tsaroulla all dropped back down to League 2, and the club didn’t even make any money on them given they were out of contract. It was a rubbish situation for the club to be in, and many thought they would be one of the worst League 1 sides we have ever seen. 

But Lindsey began to work his magic again at the start of the season, as they won their opening two fixtures. They also drew with Stockport, but since Lindsey left, they’ve lost every league game. This is a squad that doesn’t look prepared for this level of competition, and now they’ve lost their key influence, I can’t see them picking up too many more points this season. It really is that severe for Crawley right now. 

Shrewsbury are by no means the best team in the world but they do have the likes of Jordan Shipley and John Marquis who can score goals in League 1. They should have enough to get the win, while the Red Devils have also failed to score in three of their last four league games so we can add a Salop clean sheet to boost our odds. 

Shrewsbury to win to nil vs Crawley at 9/2 is our Football Bet of the Day for Saturday, October 12.