Manager Graham Turner has backed Shrewsbury Town to bounce back strongly from their first League Two defeat of the season.

Town lost their unbeaten League record and top spot in the table with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Gillingham.

Shrewsbury fell behind inside 12 minutes to a goal from Chris Palmer who then added a second from the penalty spot in the second period.

But Turner believes his side have the mental strength to recover from the opening setback of their campaign.

“It’s the first test,” admitted the Shrewsbury supremo. “We have had a good start to the season playing on the back of good results.

“This is the first piece of adversity and it depends how we react to that.

“I would back us to bounce back but it’s the strength of character of the players which will determine that.”

Despite Saturday’s disappointment, Turner admitted he was pleased with his side’s overall start to the season. “We can be disappointed about Saturday but we can also look at the bigger picture,” he added.

Complaints

“The majority of the six match targets we set in terms of points, goals for, goals against – all those sort of things – have been achieved.

“It has been a good start. We now start on the next six matches and it’s how we react to this defeat.”

Turner admitted he could have few complaints about the result at Priestfield.

“We always knew it was going to be a difficult one,” he added. “We needed to stay in the game when they were putting us under pressure in the first 20 minutes and we conceded.

“But on a tight pitch, we couldn’t get our passing game going until the last 10 minutes of the first half and the last 15 minutes of the second half.”

By JAMES GARRISON