Homegrown midfielder Steve Leslie is backing Shrewsbury Town to last the npower League Two distance – and win promotion.

Leslie, the club’s longest serving player, was a second half substitute as Shrewsbury slipped to only their second defeat of the season at Port Vale on Tuesday night.

That dropped the side to fourth in the table, but the 22-year-old expects them to be back in the automatic promotion places when it really matters.

“We’ve been playing well and we look dangerous when we pass the ball,” said Leslie, who has made just over 100 appearances for the Greenhous Meadow outfit.

“We just need to stick to our task and I think we’ll be all right come the end of the season.

“I think we’ll be up there – it’s only two defeats and I’m sure we’ll put it right.

“It’s still early in the season – Port Vale might have beaten us on Tuesday but I don’t think they’ll be above us at the end.”

Shrewsbury have suffered a frustrating week on the road, being pegged back to drop two points in the 2-2 draw with Wycombe on Saturday and then going down at Vale Park.

They hit the post twice during an impressive performance against the Chairboys and were denied a point at Vale Park when skipper Ian Sharps’ late header came out off the inside of the frame of the goal.

“The woodwork’s letting us down at the moment,” declared Leslie.

“It keeps ricocheting off and not falling at our feet.

“It happened against Wycombe last Saturday, it happened again against Port Vale on Tuesday – hopefully we can put it right this Saturday (in the home game with Torquay).”

• Town’s reserves went down 5-1 in a behind closed doors friendly away to a Crewe Alexandra side yesterday. Crewe raced into a three-goal lead before Lewis Neal pulled one back for Shrewsbury, the hosts then adding two more late on. A youthful Town side also featured first team squad members Danny O’Donnell, Kris Bright, Harry Hooman, Danny Taylor and Jon Taylor.

By CHRIS HUDSON