Shrewsbury Town manager Paul Simpson today hailed a “satisfactory” opening 10 games to the League Two campaign – as the immediate futures of Sean Thornton and Marc Pugh became clearer.
The Shrewsbury chief has always insisted he would wait until the completion of the 10th game before assessing his side’s start to the season.
And, despite Town’s League home record suffering its first blemish with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Port Vale on Saturday, Simpson is reasonably happy with the opening.
“I’m fairly satisfied – disappointed we are not on 20 points which is what I wanted to be but we have to accept it,” said the Town boss.
“We have had a reasonable start and shown the type of levels we can get to. Now we have to do that as many times as possible.
“We need to make sure, after 20 games, we are still in a strong position and keep improving and keep wanting to be better.”
Pugh today returned to Shrewsbury after a one-month loan at Luton in which he made three starts and one substitute appearance.
But Simpson’s hopes of keeping Leyton Orient’s Thornton appear to be fading due to financial constraints.
“Sean’s had a good month and I’ve been pleased with his contribution,” added Simpson.
“But I don’t think we are going to be in a position to sort something out.
“I will continue to work on it this week but at this moment in time, it looks like it’s dead and buried.”
Goalkeeper Luke Daniels and striker Dave Hibbert are both expected to be available for Saturday’s home clash with Bournemouth, despite requiring 15 and six stitches respectively on facial injuries sustained against Vale.
The blow to Daniels came when Marc Richards gave the 10-men visitors a dramatic injury time winner – and Simpson was convinced that goal shouldn’t have been allowed to stand.
“In all my years in football, I wouldn’t say I know everything about it,” added Simpson. “But I can see from 50 or 60 yards away that’s a foul on the goalkeeper.
“Unfortunately the referee – who is a lot closer than I am – couldn’t make that decision.”
By JAMES GARRISON
2 Comments
Fifth isn’t a bad position although I think Saturday threw up some problems.
1) What threat do we carry without Holt? Hibbert and Walker don’t work together. Isn’t it time to give Symes and Holt a chance?
2) When Thornton doesn’t tick - and now he’s gone - our midfield doesn’t function.
3) We are still too one-paced - with the exception of Chris Humphrey.
The trouble with Humphrey is that all he has got at the moment is pace,he run s into the fullback far to much, he need’s to learn a few tricks to go with his pace.