Midfielder Craig Disley is expected to make an ahead-of-schedule return to Shrewsbury Town training this week.

Disley picked up a knee injury in the away victory at Accrington Stanley a fortnight ago and was expected to be ruled out of action until the end of this month.

But the former Bristol Rovers midfielder has made good progress and is pencilled in for a return to training on Thursday, along with winger Lewis Neal who was a late withdrawal for the weekend success over Crewe after failing a late fitness test on his groin.

“We are expecting Craig Disley and Lewis Neal to be back in training on Thursday,” manager Paul Simpson confirmed today.

“Craig has worked hard on his rehab and it’s good news to have him back.

“But he will not be considered for Saturday (at Lincoln) – he needs a week of training and maybe part of the reserve game with Port Vale next week.

“We are hoping Lewis will be ready for Saturday.”

The double fitness boost will come as welcome news for Town who were down to 17 fit first team squad members, four of them first year professionals, for the victory over Crewe.

Simpson, meanwhile, believes Saturday’s 2-0 success has given his squad a major lift.

“I actually thought the performance against Bradford was better than the one against Crewe,” he added.

“But it’s results that give everyone a lift and the clean sheet on Saturday was huge for us as well.

“The challenge now is to try and win two games consecutively which we haven’t managed to do yet.”

Town’s reserves are in action tonight when they entertain Walsall at the Prostar Stadium (7pm).

Harry Hooman, Steve Leslie, Andre Gray and Kris Bright will be the four first team squad members involved in the starting line-up and they will be complimented by a string of youth team players and two un-named trialists.

By JAMES GARRISON