Paul Simpson continued to shape his squad for the forthcoming season with the acquisition of a new striker, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

The 22-year-old Jake Robinson has joined Craig Disley as Town’s second pre-season signing after he was released on a free from Brighton. I can’t say I know a lot about him, but age is certainly on his side, and for someone so young he already has lots of experience.

A criticism of Town last season was that their strikers were too similar and we lacked pace in the final third of the field. Hopefully Robinson will offer us that pace and will prove to be an ideal partner for Grant Holt. On paper at least, it looks a promising partnership and it would be a lot to ask Holt to score 25+ goals again.

I was slightly concerned with something Simpson said last week – that if all of the existing players he has offered new deals to sign, he only expects to bring in a goalkeeper for his squad to be complete. If Riza agrees his new deal I still think we are one experienced striker short, especially as I don’t think Hibbert is good enough and the reason why he has remained at the club is because Town can’t afford to pay him off.

I thought the extra revenue from the play-offs might have provided extra transfer funds, but at the moment we haven’t had to pay anything for our new signings and there doesn’t seem to be many more on the way, unless the existing players turn down their deals. And what about replacing Ashton and Herd, especially if Cansdell-Sheriff has another poor season and Moss gets injured?

In terms of a new goalkeeper, I would look at the possibility of bringing back Matthew Gilks on a permanent deal. During his short time here last season he impressed me, although I doubt whether he would want to drop down two divisions from Blackpool.

The big news of the week was hearing that assistant John McMahon was joining Liverpool as head reserve team coach. Under Peters he suffered a fair bit of criticism from Town fans who questioned his role, but I think we got to see how influential he was when Simpson took over. He must have done something right for Liverpool to want him and I wish him well.

Elsewhere, it was good to hear that Dave Timmins has come back to join the backroom staff. He was the man who worked closely with Joe Hart in his previous stint with Town and am sure he will get the best out of our current keepers.

I urge fans to look out for next season’s fixtures on Wednesday as the excitement for another promotion challenge starts to build..