Town boss won’t get carried away

Shrewsbury chief Paul Simpson won’t allow himself to get too excited after watching his side show glimpses of flowing football in their 2-2 draw against Premiership West Brom.

Town injected the home supporters with optimism with an exciting second half performance at the Prostar Stadium last night.

Record signing Grant Holt put Shrewsbury two goals ahead before two Albion thunderbolts ensured an entertaining friendly finished even.

“You want to win every game that you can so, although the result doesn’t affect anything, it’s still nice if you get something out of it,” said Simpson.

“I was pleased with a lot of things - I thought we played some really good football. I thought there was some good play to create the goals as well - the second was fantastic.

“Walker showed the other side of being a striker, dropping off into little holes and keeping possession. Then it’s good play, ball down the line, excellent ball in from Ben Davies and Grant Holt’s in the position that we want him to be - many, many times this season we hope - and he slots it away.

“But there’s a few weeks before we start yet and we won’t get carried away. We’ll just keep plugging away and be ready for the start.

“We still need to iron out one or two things.”

New recruit Shane Sheriff was taken off in the second half and needed five stitches under an eye.

The defender’s performance alongside Michael Jackson was another positive with the pair reading each other well and winning everything in the air.

“I thought they defended very well,” added Simpson.

“When you look at those two and also Kelvin Langmead it shows we’ve got three good centre-backs and we’ve got good options and also headaches. But that’s the type of headache I want.

“We couldn’t do anything about the two strikes they scored from. Being really picky we should have closed a bit quicker.

“Because if you give quality players space then they’re going to finish it.”