Ex-Shrewsbury Town captain Stewart Drummond has backed his former club to finally fulfil their automatic promotion dream this season.

But the 32-year-old midfielder insists his current outfit Morecambe are capable of inflicting a first League Two defeat on Paul Simpson’s side at Christie Park on Saturday.

Drummond was part of the squad which reached the play-off final 16 months ago, taking Town within a whisker of returning to the third tier of English football for the first time since 1997.

And, while that day ended in Wembley heartache, Drummond believes Shrewsbury’s time has now arrived.

Read the full story in today’s Shropshire Star.

“They were the bookies favourites at the start of the season and rightly so in my opinion,” said the man who was sold to Morecambe for £15,000 in January.

“They have got a good manager and they have been spending the cash.

“They have brought in some good signings so it’s not been a case of them wasting the money.

“I expect them to be up there all through the season and I expect them to get automatic promotion – I think a lot of people at the club would be disappointed if that didn’t happen.”

Drummond, however, is confident Morecambe are capable of springing an upset this weekend – despite the Shimps still searching for their first League Two win of the campaign.

Syndrome

“We haven’t had the best of starts,” he admitted. “The manager has brought in six new players which always takes a while to settle in and there could be a bit of second season syndrome with people learning more about us after we got promoted from the Conference.

“As a team and a club we know we can play a lot better, but there’s no reason why we can’t get a result on Saturday.

“It’s only four games old but, from what we have seen already this season, there doesn’t seem that much between the teams throughout the division.”

Drummond will be hoping to make his first League start of the season having played in the Morecambe team which defeated Oldham on penalties in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Tuesday.