Paul Simpson has moved to strengthen his Shrewsbury Town backroom team by bringing goalkeeper coach Dave Timmins back to the club.

Timmins returns to Shrewsbury after three years away, during which time he has worked in the Championship with Preston North End and in League One with Carlisle.

And he revealed it was his close relationship with Town boss Simpson that persuaded him to up sticks from Cumbria.

The two men first worked together when Simpson was in charge at Carlisle, with Timmins then working part-time with Shrewsbury and the Cumbrians as well as holding an Academy role at Wolves.

It was Simpson who took him to Preston, giving him his first full-time position in the process, and he needed little persuasion to renew the partnership.

“Paul is really good to work for,” said Timmins, who will take up his post at the Prostar Stadium when pre-season training begins on July 1. I worked with him at Carlisle and Preston and I always said I’d jump at the opportunity to work with him again.

“It’s great to be back at Shrewsbury and the club is a lot different now to when I left. The training facilities at the new ground are so much improved from what we had before.

“I’ve been living in a lovely part of the world in Cumbria and Carlisle is a good club to work for, so it was a hard decision from that point of view.

“But Shropshire is my home base – I’m a Shropshire lad and I had 10 years at Shrewsbury before.

“The experiences I’ve had and the people and players I’ve worked with in the last three years have been excellent and they have made me a better coach.”

Timmins will be charged with training Town’s first team and youth goalkeepers – and has already had talks with Simpson about bringing in a new custodian.

Glyn Garner, who spent almost all of last season serving as deputy to the on-loan Luke Daniels, is currently the only senior keeper on the club’s books.

“I know Paul is working really hard to sort that situation out,” added Timmins.

“He has a number of projects lined up and hopefully we’ll have two seniors working with two youth keepers when we come back on July 1.”

By CHRIS HUDSON