Shrewsbury Town chief Paul Simpson has backed his team to fire the goals to secure only their second away League win of the season at Port Vale tomorrow – even without 20-goal hitman Grant Holt.

Holt is suspended for the big local derby after accumulating 10 yellow cards – and that could open up a path for new signing Nick Chadwick to make his first team debut.

“Nick has showed up well for the reserves at Sheffield Wednesday (on Tuesday) and I’m pleased with what I’ve seen so far,” said Simpson

“But it’s no good being pleased with training and reserve games – he needs to show us in first team games that it was the right thing to bring him in.

“He might have a chance at Vale, but there are the likes of Dave Hibbert, Michael Symes and Richard Walker who are also fighting to be involved in the game.”

Last weekend’s postponement against Chester may have been ill-timed off the back of an encouraging goalless draw at Bradford City, but it did give a number of players a welcome rest.

Defenders Darren Moss and Graham Coughlan have  shaken off minor knocks and are fit to start, while captain Ben Davies appears certain to step back into the centre of midfield after losing his place to returned loanee Joss Labadie.

Simpson added: “We’ve had two clean sheets and four points from the last two games (against Bury and Bradford) – now we’ve got to make sure we do the next run of games properly too. 

“Tomorrow is a chance to get back into the top three, and it’s a good game for us as well. It’s a local derby and we’ll have fantastic support going up there.

“These are the fixtures that we have to do properly if we want to be involved in a promotion shake-up come the end of the season.

“We’ve got to be greedy and we’ve got to be ruthless.”

Around 1,000 Town fans are expected to make the journey to Vale Park, hoping Simpson’s men can avenge a 2-1 home defeat in October.

By SEAN WOZENCROFT