Shrewsbury vs Gillingham Predictions

Shrewsbury welcome Gillingham to New Meadow on Tuesday evening, as they look to go three games unbeaten. The visitors will be hoping to bounce back after losing at home on Saturday afternoon.

The Shrews, who’ve lost just one of their last six league matches, continued to be hard to beat on Saturday afternoon, as they went away to Lincoln and returned with both a point and a clean sheet. It’s now three games in all competitions since Sam Ricketts’ men last tasted defeat, while it’s also three games since Shrewsbury last conceded.

13^th position isn’t exactly flattering, but Shrewsbury are much better off at this stage than they were last term, so Salop fans are unlikely to be displeased. What may disappoint the fans is that the Shrews haven’t picked up more wins at home, winning just two out of five at New Meadow. That said, they’ve been strong defensively on home soil, losing just once.

While Shrewsbury have essentially been nice and steady at home, Gillingham have found it tough to put their best foot forward on the road, where they’re yet to pick up a win this season. It’s not that they’ve been battered at every turn, but due to a lack of defensive solidity, Steve Evans’ men have been unable to get their noses in front, drawing four and losing two of their six travelling matches.

Gillingham haven’t exactly presented their opponents with a tremendous amount on the road, which is what they often did last season, but because they’ve struggled going forward, scoring an average of just 0.67 goals, they’ve found it tough to match teams. In addition to having an average goal difference of -0.66 away from home, the Gills also have an average expected goal difference of -0.42, which tells us that they’re not creating more than their opponents.

In the betting, a home win appeals. Shrewsbury have been tougher to get at than Gillingham; they’ve conceded less goals, have kept double the amount of clean sheets and won more at home than Gillingham have on the road. Factor in that the Shrews have performed better in terms of expected goals, not to mention that they have a better shots-on-target ratio at home than Gillingham do on the road, and a punt on the hosts to emerge victorious starts to make sense.

‘Correct Score’ players are pointed in the direction of a 1-0 home win. Shrewsbury aren’t the biggest scorers, but they’re up against a Gillingham side that has struggled offensively on the road, so it won’t take an overly flamboyant attacking display, as long as they can be as defensively disciplined as they were when recording home clean sheets against Portsmouth, Burton and Rochdale.