Striker Nathan Elder insists Shrewsbury Town’s automatic promotion dream remains intact as they enter the hectic Christmas programme.

Town have slipped out of the play-off positions after a dip in form over the last month which has produced just two wins in the last 10 League matches.

Shrewsbury are now six points adrift of the third automatic position, and 11 and 10 behind leaders Rochdale and second placed Bournemouth respectively.

But Elder insists Town have enough in the locker to push the current table-toppers over the second half of the season.

“I have always said, if you don’t believe in something then it’s not going to happen,” said the former Brentford forward.

“We have to keep our wits about us and get to the position we want to be.

“We have played well in our last two games against top teams (Rotherham and Bournemouth) but we have to make sure we perform the same week in week out.”

Elder, meanwhile, enjoyed a rare start at Bournemouth on Saturday – his first since joining fellow striker Kris Bright on the transfer list in the wake of the FA Cup defeat to Staines.

And the 22-year-old is hoping he has done enough to retain his place for this weekend’s visit of Grimsby with leading scorer Dave Hibbert again set to be ruled out with a hamstring problem.

“I’ve been working hard in training and the gaffer (Paul Simpson) gave me a chance at Bournemouth on Saturday which was nice,” Elder added.”I’m a pretty focussed guy and I think that helped.

“When the transfer list thing happened the gaffer said if you do well, I will pick you and it won’t affect anything.

“Since hen, I have kept my head down, trained hard and hopefully I can keep getting picked. My only focus is doing well for Shrewsbury.”