Shrewsbury Town manager Paul Simpson is keeping his sights set firmly on an automatic promotion challenge ahead of tomorrow’s crunchtime at lunchtime at Wycombe.

Town go in front of the live Sky television cameras at Adams Park (12.15pm) in seventh position, the final play-off berth.

But rather than attempting to consolidate a place in the play-offs, Simpson believes a charge on the top three – which Town are currently five points away from – remains a possibility for his side.

“Once you set your stall out you are going to go for play-offs, that’s when you can end up disappointed,” said the Town boss.

“We want to go for automatic promotion. It’s still in our grasp.

“We are five points off. Rochdale losing (at Chesterfield) in midweek means they haven’t gone away from us and if we can take three points off Wycombe that takes a bit of the advantage away from their two games in hand.

“We have to keep pushing for it. Everyone has got tough run-ins.

“But we can affect it because we can take three points off Bury, Rochdale, Wycombe and Dagenham if we go about our business properly.”

With fourth-placed Wycombe four points ahead of Town and having played two games less, Shrewsbury probably need a win at Adams Park – where they romped to a seven-goal success in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in October – to keep their hopes of a top three finish alive.

And Simpson is keen to convert one points into three after watching his team draw four of their last five games.”

Kevin McIntyre and Mike Jackson are still sidelined for tomorrow while Glyn Garner has picked up a shoulder problem which will keep him sidelined for up to a fortnight.