Exciting defender Jermaine Grandison is on course to hand Shrewsbury Town a major boost ahead of the Christmas period by returning to training later this week.

Grandison has been sidelined for the last month after pulling up with a hamstring injury at the start of the 1-0 FA Cup first round defeat at Newport County.

But the former Coventry youngster has been pencilled in to return to full training on Thursday – when he turns 21.

And while Saturday’s home clash with Macclesfield could come to soon, that would put Grandison –who caught the eye at right back prior to his injury setback – in contention for the hectic festive period which sees Town playing three times in six days.

That forms part of an encouraging fitness bulletin issued by boss Graham Turner, who was today sending a reserve team to Preston for their latest friendly.

That squad was set to feature midfielder Sean McAllister, now fully over a hip problem, and striker Tom Bradshaw who missed Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Aldershot through illness but returned to training yesterday.

Defender Reuben Hazell continues to make good progress from his long-term knee injury and has his latest appointment with a specialist tomorrow.

Turner has set about attempting to flush Saturday’s defeat – which ended a five-game winning streak – out of his side’s system.

“We can either dismiss it after a good run and say it’s one of those days or it’s a matter of having a good moan,” said the Town boss.

“We chose to do the latter because it was a performance that – by our standards – wasn’t acceptable. But once you have had the moan you have to look ahead and the object now is to put it right against Macclesfield.

“We’ve had a good run and in some of the games we have played extremely well.”

Meanwhile, Town’s fans will benefit from slashed ticket prices for the FA Cup third round trip to Middlesbrough on January 7.

Tickets are £10 adults, £7 over 65s and £5 under 18s with Shrewsbury set to receive an initial allocation of around 1,000.

By James Garrison