City, United and... Who is the only other unbeaten team in English football this season?

Tom Smith 6 years ago 972
Shrewsbury join United and City in the list of teams yet to lose this season. BeSoccer

Manchester City. Manchester United. Shrewsbury. The League One team tipped for relegation join the Manchester clubs in the list of teams in the top four tiers of English football who are yet to lose this season.

The statistic that makes the Shrews' unbeaten run even more impressive, is that they have played 11 league games, four more than City and United.

Their nine wins and two draws have put them four points clear at the top of League One, and manager Paul Hurst is incredibly proud of his players.

"[My players] have been outstanding and to go two months unbeaten is a credit to any team, particularly a club like ours who were unfancied at the start of the season," said Hurst - who picked up the award for League One's Manager of the Month for September.

"Ultimately I get the award but we all know it's because of the performances of the players and the staff behind the scenes who work extremely hard. It's a big team effort.

"The work ethic of the team is outstanding. They worked very hard in pre-season, which I'm sure every club would say, but there's no doubt this group have, and they've carried that on into the season.

"As the results have gone on there's been a little bit more self-belief come into them, but they've also played some very good football at times. That has sometimes been forgotten about because we've spoken a lot about the fitness of the team, but we've also got some very good players. You don't get the record we've got so far without that."

Hurst is refusing to get carried away despite Shrewsbury's incredible start to the season, and insists the main target is still to reach the 50-point mark to avoid relegation.

"It's great but there are still many games to go," he said. "There are always going to be doubters and people may think we're getting carried away, but I can assure you that's not the case. People keep saying every week that this will be the game you get beat, so we've managed to keep proving people wrong, and that will be the aim for the whole season.

"Naturally, though, the law of averages suggest we're going to lose a game sooner rather than later, but for me when that does occur it's a case of not worrying about it too much and to keep doing what we have been. It won't be panic time. But we certainly look a hard team to play against and if we keep the work ethic up it will take a good performance and team to beat us.

"Fifty points is still what we're looking at. We took until the penultimate game of the last two seasons to reach that total, so we're already well on our way to getting there a lot quicker. Once we do reach that, and I'm confident we will, we'll then reassess, see how many games we have left have a look at the table and see what's a realistic target for us."

Mentioned in the news story

League One
Shrewsbury Town