It was early Tuesday morning and I was sitting in 'A and E' with me Dad. I'd had to rush him in, and was trying to keep myself awake. I read the 'Non League Paper so much that I know off by heart that Droitwich Spa has a football team in the Midland Combination (another ground I need!). But my thoughts turned to Town, and the fact that without the chap who was lying opposite me in quite some pain, I wouldn't be interested in Shrewsbury Town.

Roll forward 17 hours and I'm on the Riverside and watching Town stuff Rochdale 3-0. I can't remember when there has been so much belief in the Town crowd as there was last Tuesday. I saw people who have followed Town for years, and those that haven't, and in their eyes and faces you could see, the 'P' word.

Ok, it's Shrewsbury Town. It's the rollercoaster. It will end in tears right? I think wrong. I actually believe sitting here that we will go up now. What I'm actually thinking now is, is automatic promotion the thing that is possible but maybe out of reach?

Of course, feet on the ground. Nine games to go. This was the guy after Walsall, who really wondered where our season was going. Who thought, and continued to write that the playoffs were a big ask and not achievable. And yet it's the 30th March and Shrewsbury Town is 7th. It's in our hands now.

When one of my mates, normally a very critical comes up to me and says ' Ade, that's the best football I've seen since 1994' I start to sit up and take notice.

What has changed then? Well like last season, it took four months to get a settled side. Think about Walsall. We had no balance, no real shape. And even then Walsall only beat us 1-0. Ok the ten men bit is embarrassing, but I still say Walsall and maybe Hartlepool are the best sides we have met this season.

Since then we have looked composed, we've fought hard even when playing bad. And when at Macclesfield we looked poor, on comes LFW. And I tell you what if I had to eat humble pie for my thoughts on old Ronseal; I would be a totally fat bar steward.

So on last week's prediction Swindon is a loss. I think if we get anything from that game, watch out top three, seriously. I wasn't going to go. I want to save my money for the end of season frivolities, but if your team is top seven? £20 quid to get in, Jesus. Justify that.

But whatever happens tomorrow, for me the game is next Saturday at Wycombe. Whatever you're doing. Change your plans, get your three loggerheaded, blue and amber scarf out and get down there. We've never won at Wycombe and it's about time we did!

Torquay

Last weekend brought home a number of things. Torquay fans in tears after the game, realising that their hopes and dreams of League football looked doomed. Although Torquay fans are by nature a bunch that doesn't take things likely, there was real belief that with their fantastic record against us, three points was going back to Babbacombe. With results elsewhere going against them too, it was too much to bear.

I think myself, Chris, Dave W have been waiting for seven years now to walk back to 'Boots n Laces' or the 'Telepost' with big smiles on faces. How many times have we met the grinning smiles of the 'Channel Islanders' as defeat or draw as followed a Town match. We were about to let the champagne cork blow off our first success when the guys came in, and it brought back memories of that awful day at Hartlepool when I realised that we were going down. As Wynnie said to me, the reaction of Haydn and co took the gloss of a great day. But like Andy Davies said in his programme notes, you had to forget about the B and B's, etc and get the points.

I hope Torquay do survive. I hope that even if they don't they come back stronger. So many issues down there, and when you get the situation they were in, changing chairman at a whim, you realise just how lucky we are here at Shrewsbury, and what a fantastic opportunity the New Meadow is.

Badges

It would be wrong for me not to comment on the new logo, which by now you will all have seen.

It's hard for me as someone who along with my A Large Scotch colleagues fought so hard to get the return of Loggerheads and Blue and Amber back as we did in the early nineties. Initially we got a yellow and blue striped shirt (awful, but at least it wasn't a white shirt!), and then eventually a blue and amber shirt with the Town's crest on it.

The Loggerheads is of course the Town's crest, and when Atcham District Council got swallowed up in 1974, it had the bridge added to it. However the crest has always been seen as property of the borough. In fact I can remember when the Shrewsbury Hotel tried to use it, the council turned them down.

I believe the club had to do the same thing (maybe someone at the club can confirm or correct me on this) and I think the argument was at the time that Shrewsbury Rugby Club used the crest so why not Town? Like all football clubs historically the club has always represented the area they came from, and nearly all club motifs were of the boroughs crests.

In the 80's things changed and the first attempts at marketing brought a host of clubs crest which most of been consigned to the scrap heap. Think of our poor old Shrew!

However the 'retro scene' brought most of them back. Advances in technology meant that elaborate crest were easier to reproduce and hence most club badges are full blown crest, shields, animals etc.

Question for you. How many badges have Town had since joining the League. Would you believe it is seven?

The badge on the cover of the programme may have always been a 'Loggerheads and Floreat Salopia' but on the shirt-

In our 1st Non League days - some photos show blue loggerheads on the shirt - this was the Bristol Rovers quartered style shirt we first wore at Gay Meadow I believe.

On joining the League it was a shield with a simple 'S' covered by a 'T'.
In the 60's it was the shield with the words' Shrewsbury Town' and 'FC' either side of a football.
In the 70's what I call the classic 'Loggerheads' and 'STFC'.
In the 80's the 'Spinal Tap' badge. Cool!
Then of course the Shrew (not cool).
Which served us to the 90's with a return of the 70's classic 'Loggerheads and STFC' in a shield followed by in 1997 the current badge with the 'Floreat Salopia'.

And that's pretty typical of most clubs.

Of course we cry tradition. Me included. I love the fact that our Loggerheads come screaming out at everyone. Wasn't wearing that bloody Shrew embarrassing!

But what is tradition? A fad that is current with the times perhaps? Blue and Amber to us is like Leeds all white kit. What we associate with success but if we are honest isn't the true colours. Leeds actually should be blue and amber!

But it's what you get used to. Blue and Amber and Loggerheads are what we are used to. It's what I first saw Town play in, be successful in. Town were successful with a Shrew on their chest. They finished 8th in the Championship with that crest on the nipple. However we sunk without trace after that.

And of course we are leaving Gay Meadow. Tradition has had to be scarified to keep the club alive. The club would argue that by doing the same with the badge does the same.

What I would argue about all this is that there has to be a comprise of thinking. Fans want the club to be successful. We are proud Salopians, and want our club to professional. We want the same standards as we expect when we go to our favourite shop, bank our supermarket. Let's be honest for all the want of trying it isn't. To do it properly costs money. And money at a football club goes to team building, in the first instance.

So income steams have to be produced and the New Meadow provides that. The prawn sandwich brigade are being asked to fall over themselves to watch League One Shrewsbury and 'One Lion on your nipple' take on the best pretenders the country can offer. Fine. BUT?Shrewsbury Town. Do not forget the 1700 that ten years ago stood around the Meadow to watch us loose to Mansfield at home. Who were the ones who by still coming gave this club the opportunity to keep going? The guys who have been selling lottery tickets, Golden Gamble, football cards, volunteers etc. They are as much a link with the glorious past of this football club as the Loggerheads and Gay Meadow are. If I'm honest I think they are being forgotten. And it's not they were ungrateful. How many times do I have to say Roland you are a bloody star, hero, legend and without you this would be Ade Plimmer talking about FC Shrewsbury Town taking on Meole Brace tomorrow in a local derby up Springfield. True. Some people might want that, and be happy with that but not I. I didn't campaign so that we could do that. I campaigned for a new stadium so that this club lives on into the future and returns to the Championship end of. However this aint 1979 any more and I cant go on the set of 'Life on Mars'. Time shave changed. Football has changed and if we want to get there and not be 'little old sleepy Shrewsbury' then you need dollars to do it, and you can't rely on one bloke and his mates to keep putting in between £300,000 plus or more a year to maintain that. But as I've said, don't forget US when going after the corporate dollar. Don't disenfranchise the people who have been there for this football club.

With the likelihood that we wont have a proper Supporters Bar at the ground, I would love when the dust has settled, Town have been in situ for a while, and SARA have realised that we aren't a skunk, for the Supporters bodies and especially shrewsTRUST to take the lead and get a proper supporters bar built at the NM. Maybe as we include the Loggerheads in our crest, and still intend to, we could do merchandising for the people who don't like the new badge, and that money goes towards a proper Supporters Bar facility. At least that money isn't lost.

Again lets me stress. I am not ungrateful for what the board have done, the tireless hard work of the chairman, and board of directors, and the sacrifices they have made. I think all we want as fans is exactly the same as other clubs have.

To end on.

Ok after all the serious stuff. I had a letter through the door last Friday. Addressed to me. It was A4 sized. Card backed envelope. Inside was a letter from the Super Blues club, and a certificate.

"Dear Mr Plimmer" it said. "Congratulations on being an addition to the Walkway of Fame".

'That's funny', I thought. 'I haven't applied yet'. Anyway

I looked at the certificate.

There were the words on my brick

Ade Plimmer - TELFORD FOREVER!

I have my spies about, and certain motley of the A Large Scotch gang seem to be prime suspects. However Mr Wynnie was very stony faced in the Prince the other night when I asked him.

Anyway, I've just sent off my reply asking for the brick to be change to read

PLIMMER FAMILY

SALOP FOREVER

I think my Great Granddad, Dad, Mum Bro and others would love that.

Three Loggerheads always.

Believe fellow Salopians

Ade Plimmer