Captain Ian Sharps has backed Shrewsbury Town’s fitness and strength in depth to rise to the fore during the gruelling New Year weekend.

A hectic programme sees Graham Turner’s side head to Bradford on Saturday before entertaining Northampton at the Greenhous Meadow on Monday.

But Sharps believes Town have the credentials to emerge unscathed through two games in 48 hours.

“It’s going to be tough but we have got dedicated lads at the club,” he said.

“You could see in the Boxing Day game at Cheltenham that the lads had looked after themselves over Christmas.

“The fitness is tremendous and we looked the stronger team in the last 20 minutes at Cheltenham.

“The size and quality of our squad is also going to be important.

“In training, we virtually play 11-versus-11 and you wouldn’t know which team was which.

“Our bench on Monday was Ben Smith, Marvin Morgan, Terry Gornell, Lionel Ainsworth and James Wallace.

“They always say you are only as strong as your bench and we must have one of the best in the League at the moment.”

While Sharps is happy with Town’s recent form – the defeat at Aldershot was the only blip in the last 11 games – he admits there is a tinge of disappointment they have yet to break into League Two’s automatic promotion places.

“We want to be in the top three and we are not quite there at the moment,” added the 31-year-old central defender.

“There is room for improvement. We had a phase earlier in the season when we didn’t perform properly and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen in the second half of the season.

“But things are going well. We have been to virtually all the top sides away from home now with the exception of Swindon and we have looked good at home.

“There are a lot of clean sheets which is the sign of a team that’s going to get promoted.”