Shrewsbury Town’s new hot shot striker Nick Chadwick has vowed to put 18 months of disappointment behind him and fire the goals to take the club into League One.

Chadwick, who signed a contract with Town last week 24 hours after being released by Hereford United, looks set to make his first team debut on Saturday at Port Vale – and the 26-year-old is desperate to impress.

“It was very disappointing to see my time with Plymouth end how it did,” said Chadwick, once rated as one of the country’s most promising youngsters.

“I just picked up one injury after another, which wasn’t good with my contract up at the end of the season.

“Hereford was disappointing as I didn’t get the games that I thought I would – if I had known that I was going to a bit-part player for them then I never would have signed because I had other better options over the summer.

“But I want to put all that behind me now and I think Shrewsbury is a perfect club for me at the moment.

“Not many teams in League Two have a set-up like this – even in League One this would be a good set-up.

“The management are very professional and they have a good plan to kick on, so this should be ideal for me.”

Chadwick, who made his first appearance in blue and amber for the reserves at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, is likely to go straight into the starting line-up for the weekend trip to Vale Park as Grant Holt is suspended.

That could prove to be a baptism of fire for the hard-working frontman, but he is confident of re-discovering the goalscoring touch which saw him bag three Premiership goals in 14 top flight appearances for Everton between 2001 and 2005.

He continued: “I want to kick-start my career from here. This club has the quality players to push on for promotion.

“It would have been nice to get going straight away last week, but hopefully the extra week of training will have helped me.

“I’m chuffed to bits to be here and feel fit and raring to go.”

By SEAN WOZENCROFT