When Ray Russell first arrived at Shrewsbury Town in the summer of 1954, he required some convincing he was capable of cutting the Football League mustard.

Non-League spells with, amongst others Burton Albion and Kidderminster, had yielded goals aplenty.

But it wasn’t until Russell struck on his Town debut in a 2-2 draw at Brentford in the second game of the Division Three South campaign that he truly believed he belonged at the elite level.

“When I signed for Shrewsbury, I said I would come part-time initially because I didn’t know if I was good enough to get in the first team,” said Russell, who was Town’s latest legend to mark the 125th anniversary of the club in Saturday’s goalless draw with Chesterfield.

“It meant I carried on my job as a saw doctor in the timber industry for a year.

“Shrewsbury played the first game of my first season and lost (4-1 to Southend) and I wasn’t included. But I was picked for the second game – we drew and I scored.

“I went on to make a good number of appearances so went full time the following season.”

Russell was to spend six years at Shrewsbury, scoring 61 times in 177 games in all competitions and was part of a promotion winning campaign in 1958-59 before moving on to pastures new 12 months later.

“I went to Crewe from Shrewsbury and they wanted to keep me for another year but the travelling was too much so I went back to the timber industry,” he added.

“But I had a lot of happy memories from my time at Shrewsbury and made a lot of good friends.

“I played with Arthur Rowley for three or four years — he was a great goalscorer and a very powerful and strong man to have alongside you.”

Now 80 and living in his Bloxwich birthplace, Russell still keeps tabs on the football scene.

“I always check the results of the clubs I played for so that’s Shrewsbury and Burton in the League and Walsall as my local side,” he added.

“But it’s always Shrewsbury I look for first.”