Shrewsbury Town have been challenged to improve on their “average” start to the League Two campaign at Accrington Stanley tomorrow.

Town have picked up five points from their first four League Two games and lie 17th in the embryonic table.

Manager Paul Simpson is keen to improve on that return in Lancashire tomorrow, and has identified shoring up defensively as the key to success.

“We have had a win, two draws and a loss which has been an average start,” said Simpson. “We want to be better than average and we want to make sure the improvement starts this weekend.

“We need to start keeping clean sheets because we have conceded a lot of goals.

“I know the five (at Dagenham) makes it look worse than it actually is but we have conceded far too many goals.

“To get any level of success you have to keep clean sheets and we haven’t had one yet so it would be nice to start tomorrow.”

Town will be forced into at least one change from the team which drew 1-1 with Chesterfield last week, with new loanee Steve Phillips set to replace the injured Chris Neal in goal.

Simpson must also decide to bring winger Lewis Neal back into his plans after he returned from injury with a 45-minute reserve team outing against Derby County on Wednesday.

Simpson is hopeful his side can record their first away victory of the campaign if they produce their best at Accrington.

“People tell me the pitch is in good nick at the moment and that’s the only thing we should concern ourselves with,” he added.

“The surroundings and everything else shouldn’t come into it.

“The top and bottom of it is we have to go there and get a result.

“We want to be positive. They are a decent footballing side but if we go and do it properly, I’m hopeful we have got enough to get a result.”

By JAMES GARRISON