Shrewsbury Town have been set a minimum target of five wins from their last eight games as they prepare for tonight’s crunch clash at Rotherham.

A top three finish remains the firm focus in the Greenhous Meadow corridors and victory in the re-arranged showdown at the Don Valley Stadium would see Town end the evening in the automatic promotion places.

And boss Graham Turner believes the congested nature of the top of League Two means a lower than normal points tally will be required for a top three finish this season.

“It is absolutely wide open for anybody who can string a few wins together,” said Turner.

“It could be a reasonably low total that gets up automatically – maybe around the 75 point mark which would be five more wins for us.”

With defender Shane Cansdell-Sheriff expected to overcome a minor calf problem, Turner’s main selection issue comes in attack.

The Town boss was remaining coy on whether he will promote Tom Bradshaw to the starting line-up after his two-goal impact at Bradford on Saturday, or stick with the Matt Harrold-James Collins partnership.

“Tom came on and did extremely well,” he said.

“He was out for a while injured and has slowly been coming back.

“He is capable of scoring goals. He has got such a high energy, high tempo style that he doesn’t let anybody rest for a minute.

“The decision is whether, at the moment, we are better bringing him on for the last 20 minutes when teams are tiring and he can bring that fresh energy or are we better starting him.”

While right back Jermaine Grandison serves the last of a three game ban, on loan defender Niall Canavan is available for the first time after returning from international duty when he played 45 minutes of the Republic of Ireland’s 2-0 under 21 friendly defeat in Portugal on Friday night.

Captain Ian Sharps will return to his former club after becoming a father for the third time on Saturday night.

Rotherham, who lie eighth and just a point adrift of Shrewsbury, spectacularly ended a five-game winless sequence with a 6-0 thumping of Lincoln on Friday.

By JAMES GARRISON