Fingers crossed we get Holt

Excitement seems to be in the air amongst fans as Town are close to unveiling a major signing in their push for promotion next season, writes our Shrews blogger James Pugh.

Town have agreed a fee with Nottingham Forest for striker Grant Holt, and I for one am absolutely thrilled.

Although he didn’t have the best of seasons for Forest last season, the fact is that he is a good age (27) and has always scored goals at our level. He has something like a ratio of a goal every two games.

I remember watching him play against us for Rochdale and he looked some player. You look at the teams that get promoted and everyone of them has a prolific scorer and I’m afraid we just haven’t got one in our side at the moment.

We still have to agree personal terms with the player, but if we get him, credit to Paul Simpson to convince a player to drop a division, especially when teams in League One want to sign him. This shows ambition and I’m not sure if Peters could have done that.

If we do sign Holt, I wonder if the search for strikers will stop there, as I also hear we are linked with Luke Beckett of Huddersfield Town and Richard Walker of Bristol Rovers. These are also strikers who play in League One and have fantastic goalscoring records.

The problem is that we are going to be left with too many strikers after Simpson has said he is willing to give the others a chance. He might just be saying this to talk them up and put them in the shop window, rather than say he doesn’t think they are good enough which will mean clubs won’t want to sign them.

Apparently Simpson has offers on the table for four players, and if the other three are as good as Holt and we manage to sign them, then a big thumbs up to the manger and this will go a long with in him winning the fans over and hopes of promotion next season will no doubt grow.

The fixtures for next season were announced recently and what do fans think?

It’s always important to start off well, like we did lat season, and we have got to be pleased with the teams we are facing.

It’s nice to start off with a home game and Macclesfield Town struggled last season, while the next two games are against two of the promoted teams from the Blue Square Premier – Exeter and Aldershot.

Although we haven’t got many local derbies to look forward to, the trip to Chester on September 20 and return game on January 10 are ones to pencil in the diary.