Graham Turner today declared himself happy with the case for the Shrewsbury Town defence – as he focused on bolstering his attacking options.

Turner completed his third defensive signing of the summer on Friday when David Raven joined from Carlisle.

He followed Mat Sadler and Ian Sharps into the Greenhous Meadow and Turner is now happy with the defensive options available to him.

“David is a good, experienced defender who is well respected in the game,” said Turner.

“I have said before that you need flexible players in your squad, and we have that in David who can play either right back or centre half.

“We have got good defensive options now in Dean Holden, David Raven Ian Sharps, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff and Mat Sadler.

“We have also got Kevin McIntyre who can play at left back and a couple of young lads like Danny Taylor so it’s looking fairly settled on that front.

“We still have negotiations on-going with a number of agents and players in other areas of the squad, and we are hoping we may have one or two more players in later this week.”

It is likely Turner will be keen to recruit a central midfielder in the wake of the departure of Terry Dunfield and up to two new strikers after Dave Hibbert’s move to Peterborough and long-term injuries to Nathan Elder and Kris Bright.

Town get their first chance of pre-season friendly action tomorrow when they take on Birmingham City in a behind-closed-doors game.

“I’m led to believe Birmingham will play two completely different sides in each half so we will come up against very strong opposition,” added the Shrewsbury boss.

“But we are looking forward to it.”

By JAMES GARRISON