Inspired by their two new signings, Town ended a run of three straight defeats with victory against Aldershot, writes Shrewsbury Town blogger James Pugh.

In the end the 3-1 home victory was very comfortable, but only after Aldershot’s David Winfield was sent off for headbutting the impressive Lewis Neal.

Up until Town equalised Aldershot could easily have been three goals up and our slow start could well have been down to our recent poor form.

Overall we came back strong into the game and I thought McIntyre and Neal were our star players and along with the two new lads.

Scoring goals hasn’t been a problem for us this season and it was good for the much criticised Nathan Elder to grab a goal. Town’s problem this season has been their lack of clean sheets and you feel if we are to mount a serious promotion challenge we need to continue to tighten up at the back.

Since the season began fans have been crying out for new signings – it was clear our squad lacked strength in depth and we would be in trouble if we suffered from injuries and suspensions.

Simpson has been criticised for taking his time over bringing new players in, but he stressed he wanted to bring players in that were better than we have got and they certainly delivered on Saturday.

When I heard Jamie Devitt and Waide Fairhurst had signed on loan I worried about them being too young and inexperienced to make an impact, but they did that and more against Aldershot as they were immediately thrown into first team action.

Devitt is a wide man who likes to take players on, while Fairhurst offers us something different in attack and although it’s only one game, they look great signings who Simpson should try and keep for longer than a month.

The victory over Aldershot showed we can mix it with the top teams in the division and we need to show that again away to Notts County on Saturday.

Town’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy dreams ended in midweek with an awful performance against Accrington, with Bright and Elder both starting and failing to take their chance. Next up is the FA Cup and Town are long overdue a decent run in this competition.

Simpson should be delighted with getting a home draw against Staines Town first up and I only hope he takes the competition as seriously as it deserves.