Shrewsbury Town boss Graham Turner has warned his high-flying side that they face an even tougher battle for points now they have reached the League Two summit.

Unbeaten Town have been in fine early season form but Turner knows that the real challenge starts now.

He said: “It’s nice to be top of the league but it might bring a bit of extra pressure.

“I think most sides raise their game against the so-called better teams so we might find sides are a bit tighter against us and therefore it might be a little bit more difficult for us.”

“Teams might try and stifle us a bit more and work harder against us but we will have to work hard to break those teams down, and I’ve got confidence that we’ve got the players to do that.”

And Turner insists his side are not getting carried away with their start to the season.

He added: “We’ve had a good start to the season but that’s all it is at the moment.

“We’re not getting too carried away but we’ve played a lot of football — five games in 15 days — and maybe that took its toll a little bit against Rotherham.”

Battle

Meanwhile, a strong Shrewsbury side will make the trip to Tranmere Rovers tonight in a totesport.com league match.

First teamers Steve Leslie, Kris Bright, Benjamin van den Broek and Lewis Neal are all likely to feature.

But goalkeeper Ben Smith has lost his fitness battle —with Turner not willing to risk the stopper ahead of Saturday’s trip to Gillingham.

Turner said: “Ben Smith hasn’t quite made it but he is in contention for a place on the bench on Saturday.

“We felt that if he played tonight he would have to have done a lot of kicking which wouldn’t have helped his injury.

“It’s one we can manage in training and it is only his first full week back with us this week so it’s just come too soon.”

Tonight’s game is a 7pm kick off at Prenton Park.

By ALEX JAMES