Luke told training is ‘best remedy’

On-loan Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper Luke Daniels has been told he must train to gain in his race for fitness - but will definitely miss tomorrow’s League Two trip to Chesterfield.

The 20-year-old West Brom man has not featured for Town since the 2-1 defeat at Accrington last month, having suffered a thigh injury two games previously against Port Vale.

Consultants have now identified what boss Paul Simpson called “pockets of fluid” in the young custodian’s thigh, but medics insist regular training should offer a solution.

“He’s back in training but he’s still not fully fit yet,” Simpson confirmed. “He’s had the all clear to carry on with his training again, and that’s good news for us.

“He’s got pockets of fluid in his thigh and the advice is that the way to break those down is to continue training.

“I’m hoping he could be available for the following week (away at Lincoln) but he’s not available for Chesterfield tomorrow night.”

Glyn Garner has deputised during Daniels’ enforced absence and is likely to continue against the Spireites.

But Simpson also has the option of recalling Scott Bevan, who is in the second month of a loan period at Torquay and can be brought back at 24 hours’ notice.

The over-riding priority for the Shrewsbury camp will be to register a positive result and banish the memory of last Saturday’s damaging 3-1 defeat at non-League Blyth Spartans in the FA Cup.

And Simpson is encouraging positive thinking, insisting: “We’re still in a good position - the fact that we went out of the FA Cup has a negative impact financially, but we were never going to go on and win it.

“We can’t do anything about that now, but we can do something about the League games and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy games.

“There’s no guarantee we will get a result tomorrow, of course, and we know it’s going to be tough.

“We have to show the same determination we have shown in many games this season, and especially in the games with Luton and Dagenham recently (which Town won 3-0 and 5-0 respectively).”

l Brighton will be Shrewsbury’s opponents in the southern area semi-final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy after they defeated Swindon 2-0 last night.

By Chris Hudson